How many freelance there are in Brussels? Is the number increasing in the past years? How many companies are bankrupt in Belgium? Here are the answers to these questions and a lot more!
This post intends to give an overview of the situation of self-employed in Belgium. The data is taken from the annual report of 2014 published by the National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed (NISSE). Its goal is to protect the self-employed entrepreneurs’ social status from the establishment of their company to their pension in order to contribute to their social and economic well-being.
The NISSE has a wide range of statistics on the social status of self-employed and companies. The National Institute draws particular from this rich source of information to answer questions from other public institutions, to provide data as a basis for the scientific research for studies and simulations. So, let’s take a look at their data.
1.015.902 was the number of self-employed in Belgium in 2014. Big number right? Impressive THE RAISE OF FREELANCE-01-01if we think that compared to 2014 this number increased by 1,48% (14.801 units more, and in 2012 they were 969.896).
More or less a third of that million are women. Between them, 625.098 are from the Flanders, 276.153 from Wallonia, 98.772 are based in the Region of Brussels, 9.383 are foreigners (people who are not resident in Belgium but they do business in this country) and 6.497 are from the German speaking region.
The number of people who are self-employed as their principal job is increasing, more 0.95% compared to the year before. Also the number of women raised of 1,13%, compared to a plus 0.86% of men. The number of male self-employed as side project, slightly compacted, -0,40%, different is the situation for women, + 4.22% (from 85 672 to 89 289).
We can notice a continuos rise of liberal professions (occupations requiring special training in the arts or sciences, such as lawyers, notaries, engineers, architects, doctors, and accountants etc), + 4.23% (from 274.420 to 286.016) compared to 2013. Also the primary sector experimented a rise, + 1.91%, but a significative decrease continues impacting the fishing industry in the last years, -4,89% compared to 2013. In particular, in the Region of Brussels the professional raised from 33.477 in 2013 to 34.803 in 2014 and people working as freelance for services were in 2014 5.563 and 5.387 in 2013.
How many companies are bankrupt in Belgium? After a rise in the numbers between 2012 and 2013 (from 7.778 to 8.668), in 2014 the bankrupts decreased a bit, 8.552. Of which 1.953 in the Region of Brussels.
What about the retired? The total number of pensioners of course increases, from 509,794 in 2013 to 519,648 in 2014.