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Population at Belgian coast ageing fast

11:46 29/05/2015

By 2030, more than half of the residents of Belgium’s coastal municipalities will be older than 56, more than 8% more than at present, according to research commissioned by the Province of West Flanders.

Nearly 43% of the coastal population is 56 years or older, and more than a quarter of them are over 65. These figures are considerably higher than 10 years ago, when there were just 20,000 residents over 56 living at the coast. At this rate, the coastal municipalities will have 177,777 residents older than 56 by the year 2030, or 52% of all coastal residents.

The statistics confirm the trend of the so-called retirement migrants flocking to the coast, while young people increasingly withdraw inland.

Written by Robyn Boyle