The pendulum
Steunpunt Werk shows all commuting movements in Belgium on a dynamic map. It shows a detailed picture of who works where, down to the level of each municipality. Poperinge and Hoogstraten are the most secure municipalities, Mesen and Herstappe can offer their residents the fewest jobs locally.
Not Brussels, but the Halle-Vilvoorde region attracts the most commuters. 61.5 percent of employees come from outside the region. The most stable provinces in Belgium are West Flanders, Liège and Antwerp. There, residents are least likely to look for a job outside the provincial borders. Liège, West Flanders and Limburg are also the provinces that best fill their vacancies with local residents.
Remarkably, the top regions with the highest commuting intensity do not include the economic clusters of Ghent or Antwerp, but the half arc of Walloon Brabant, Brussels, Halle-Vilvoorde and Rivierenland. The center and south-west of West Flanders also attract relatively more commuters than Antwerp or Ghent. In South-West Flanders, more French (6,000) work than Walloons (4,500). Their share has increased slightly over the years.
Two hundred Luxembourgers in West Flanders
Inter-regionally, Brussels is of course the most important pole of attraction for both the Flemish and Walloon Regions. 225,312 Flemish people and 127,775 Walloons work there. On the other hand, the commuting movement between Flanders and Wallonia remains relatively limited. Only 31,476 Flemish people go to work in Wallonia, 57,000 Walloons commute to Flanders. Some of them travel across the country for their work. Nearly two hundred Luxembourgers will work in West Flanders, and a hundred West Flemish people will make the reverse commute.
These are just a few of the movements that can be read from a new dashboard on which Steunpunt Werk (KU Leuven) maps the commuting movements of employees in Belgium. The online tool provides a detailed picture of who works where in Belgium, at regional, provincial, regional and municipal level. The so-called commuting intensity – the extent to which a region attracts residents from outside or residents work elsewhere – can also be made visible at the various levels.
Work more in your own region
The map also shows evolutions over time, from 2008 to 2021. This shows, for example, an increasing tendency to work in your own region. The mobility problems will probably lead to a slight decrease in commuting over the years. The evolution in Brussels is also striking. While in 2008 more Flemish people (40 percent) worked in the Capital Region than Brussels residents (37 percent), the ratio will be reversed in 2021. Brussels is therefore more successful in getting its own population to work.
The fact that people prefer to look for a job in their own city is especially evident in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp. These are the cities where most residents work locally. At village level these are Blankenberge and Poperinge. Most of the vacancies there are filled by local residents.
You can consult the full map here.
