Some 55,000 individuals have left the Brussels area during the last twenty years to settle in Flanders or Wallonia an IWEPS study, the main conclusions of which have been published on Wednesday by the Sudpresse news group, reveals. Attert (+46%), Léglise (+44%) and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (+39%) are the French-speaking districts, which have seen demographic growth balloon during this period of time.
IWEPS (the Walloon institute for studies, forecasts and statistics) has drawn up a map of the demography of both the Walloon and Brussels districts between 1994 and 2014.
Large Walloon towns have thus tragically lost numerous inhabitants who have left to settle in the countryside. Their departure has been counterbalanced by the appearance of Brussels inhabitants. During this period, the capital’s population has increased through immigration (witnessing growth of 29% in twenty years).
Only some districts have lost inhabitants since 1994. The largest is Charleroi (with a decrease of 1.9%), whilst Farciennes (with a decrease of 4.6%), Boussu (with a decrease of 3.5%) and Watermael-Boitsfort (with a decrease of 0.4%) have also had an exodus which has not been offset by immigration to these areas.
(Source: Belga)
