Brussels residents are young and international

As of January 1, 2013, one in three residents of the Brussels-Capital Region did not have Belgian nationality, according to demographics released yesterday by the Brussels Institute for Statistics and Analysis (BISA).

The study shows that among Brussels inhabitants, there are 381,771 non-Belgians, or 33.1 percent. That's three times more than the Belgian average of 10.8 percent. French nationals form the largest group of foreigners with more than 57,000, followed by Moroccans and Italians. Romanians, who are better represented than Poles for the first time this century, now take fourth place. More than two out of three foreigners in Brussels (68 percent) have a European nationality.

The figures also show that Brussels is the youngest region in Belgium, with an average age of 37.4 years, compared to 40.6 years in Wallonia and 42 years in the Flemish Region.