Demographic features of the population of Belgium include ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.

Country comparison to the world: 32nd The total fertility rate (TFR) gradually increased during the last decade from 1.60 in 1997, 1.65 in 2002 and 1.82 in 2007.

Country comparison to the world: 175st Mother's mean age at first birth; 29 years (2018 est.)

[18][dubious – discuss] In 2007, there were 1.38 million foreign-born residents in Belgium, corresponding to 12.9% of the total population.

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education); total: 20 years Belgium does not collect data on ethnicity or race, but does collect data on the country of origin of citizens.

[20][21] According to Michèle Tribalat in the beginning of 2020, people of foreign background and their descendants were estimated to have formed 32.1% of the total population.

The rest consists mostly of French-speaking people from Brussels, Turks, Kurds,[24] Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spaniards, Greeks, Bosniaks, Algerians, Congolese, Vietnamese, Poles, Indians, and Guineans (around 23% of Belgium's population is of non-Belgian origin).

[26] The exact number of French-speakers in Brussels is hard to determine, but it is estimated that 85% of the people living in Brussels use French and 10% use Dutch in their households, as the sole language or secondary language, while Arabic is also largely spoken.

The vast majority of Belgium's population, 99%, is literate as defined by the Belgian government, i.e. capable of reading and writing in an official language by the time a citizen has reached the age of 15.

[30] This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2025 ed.).