Country Comments

In a country eight times more populated than what is sustainable, Belgium's environment experiences intense pressures from human activities: as much as one-fourth of the territory consists of built-up areas and very dense networks of roads, railways and navigation canals; industry and very intensive animal breeding and crop cultivation impose further pressures on air, soil, water resources and nature. In spite of its ample rainfall, on a per capita basis Belgium is poor in water resources. Pressures on water resources resulting from high population density, industry and very intensive agriculture are correspondingly high. Open land is disappearing and trends in biodiversity losses have not been reversed.

Belgian women are now better educated than their male counterparts, the female labor force participation rate has increased significantly over the past two decades and contraception adoption rate is high. These factors have led to a below replacement fertility rate of 1.71 children per mother. Immigration, averaging 48,000 new residents a year, causes more than 90% of the country’s population growth.