Belgium

Belgium: steady but modest growth, 1980–2024

A founding member of the European Union and host to most of its institutions, Belgium built a high-income, trade-intensive economy around the port of Antwerp, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, while carrying persistently high public debt and a long-running economic divide between Flanders and Wallonia. Between 1980 and 2024, Belgium's GDP per capita grew from $12,864 to $56,615 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 3.4% — steady but modest growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 1.9% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 1.8 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 1.3% to 0.8% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 62.8% to 71.0% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 73.2 to 82.3 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 56.7% to 82.1%, while the urban population share grew from 74.7% to 87.6%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 13.98 to 7.31 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) widened from 25.2 to 26.8; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 0.3% to 0.1%.