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Country profile

Belgium

At a glance

  • Belgium has a population of about 11.9M; its total GDP of $725.5B ranks #22 of 168 countries with data.
  • Its surface area of 30,021 km² is about 16% of the world median of 190,157 km².
  • Poverty rate ($2.15/day) stands out most against the median: 0.1% — rank #130 of 153 countries with data.

Belgium: all 46 metrics vs the world median

Metric Value Rank vs median
Population & land
Population 11.9M (2025) #81 / 169 median 11.5M · 1.0×
Population growth 0.7% (2025) #107 / 169 median 1.1% · 63%
Urban population share 87.7% (2025) #23 / 169 median 63.8% · 1.4×
Population aged 65+ 21.0% (2025) #21 / 169 median 7.4% · 2.8×
Fertility rate 1.4 (2024) #132 / 169 median 2.1 · 69%
Birth rate 9.2‰ (2024) #135 / 169 median 16.0‰ · 58%
Death rate 9.5‰ (2024) #40 / 169 median 7.1‰ · 1.3×
Net migration 32K (2025) #27 / 169 N/A
Surface area 30,021 km² #140 / 176 median 190,157 km² · 16%
Population density derived 398/km² (2025) #12 / 169 median 73.2/km² · 5.4×
Economy
GDP (total) $725.5B (2025) #22 / 168 median $80.7B · 9.0×
GDP per capita $60,750 (2025) #13 / 168 median $6,834 · 8.9×
GNI per capita $59,500 (2025) #14 / 168 median $6,350 · 9.4×
GDP growth (annual) 1.0% (2025) #137 / 168 median 3.1% · 32%
Inflation rate 2.5% (2025) #99 / 162 median 3.3% · 75%
Unemployment rate 5.9% (2025) #73 / 168 median 5.1% · 1.1×
Gini index 26.8 (2023) #140 / 153 median 35.3 · 76%
Poverty rate ($2.15/day) 0.1% (2023) #130 / 153 median 2.5% · 4%
Trade & industry
Exports share of GDP 75.5% (2025) #13 / 163 median 35.0% · 2.2×
Imports share of GDP 77.5% (2025) #14 / 163 median 40.2% · 1.9×
Agriculture share of GDP 0.7% (2025) #160 / 168 median 7.2% · 10%
Manufacturing share of GDP 11.2% (2025) #83 / 165 median 11.2% · 1.0×
International tourist arrivals 2.6M (2020) #52 / 162 median 1.1M · 2.3×
Tourism receipts $7.4B (2020) #27 / 165 median $705M · 11×
Health & education
Life expectancy 82.3 years (2024) #19 / 169 median 73.8 years · 1.1×
Infant mortality 3.1‰ (2024) #144 / 166 median 13.1‰ · 24%
Under-five mortality 3.7‰ (2024) #143 / 166 median 15.8‰ · 23%
DPT immunization 97.0% (2024) #23 / 166 median 90.5% · 1.1×
Hospital beds 5.4 per 1,000 (2023) #24 / 167 median 2.0 per 1,000 · 2.7×
Health spending share of GDP 10.8% (2023) #13 / 165 median 6.5% · 1.7×
Secondary school enrollment 143.0% (2023) #1 / 167 median 90.5% · 1.6×
Education spending share of GDP 6.3% (2022) #19 / 165 median 4.1% · 1.5×
Society & living
Human Development Index 0.951 (2023) #9 / 165 median 0.754 · 1.3×
Internet users 95.8% (2024) #16 / 169 median 81.5% · 1.2×
Mobile subscriptions 103.9 per 100 (2024) #110 / 169 median 116.4 per 100 · 89%
Fixed broadband 44.2 per 100 (2024) #9 / 168 median 12.1 per 100 · 3.7×
Electricity access 100.0% (2024) #9 / 169 median 99.9% · 1.0×
Environment & security
CO₂ emissions per capita 7.3 t (2024) #27 / 165 median 2.6 t · 2.8×
CO₂ emissions (total) derived 86.6 Mt (2024) #43 / 165 median 21.3 Mt · 4.1×
Renewable electricity share 23.5% (2021) #100 / 169 median 34.1% · 69%
Renewable energy consumption 11.7% (2021) #128 / 169 median 26.9% · 43%
Forest area 22.6% (2023) #103 / 169 median 32.4% · 70%
Agricultural land 44.4% (2023) #75 / 169 median 41.7% · 1.1×
Arable land 28.3% (2023) #29 / 168 median 11.0% · 2.6×
PM2.5 exposure 8.4 µg/m³ (2023) #148 / 168 median 19.8 µg/m³ · 43%
Military spending 1.3% (2024) #102 / 157 median 1.8% · 71%

Ranks are value-descending and count only the countries that have data for that metric (#1 = highest value); N/A rows occupy no rank.

The median is the unweighted middle value across the countries with data (gold tick) — not a world average. Bars grow with the value: reaching the tick means matching the median, and a full bar means twice the median or more. The median value and this country's multiple are noted under each bar.

Belgium's true-shape outline

Belgium's border outline from Natural Earth 1:110m boundaries — total surface area 30,021 km².

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Data & method

Indicators: World Bank Open Data, 43 indicators — CC BY 4.0 © World Bank — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; Human Development Index — CC BY 3.0 IGO © United Nations Development Programme — https://hdr.undp.org/terms-use

Boundaries: Natural Earth 1:110m (public domain); surface areas are computed with an equal-area spherical formula (Chamberlin–Duquette).

Reference facts (capital, languages, currencies, subregion): mledoze/countries (ODbL).