June 26, 2023
The share of Belgians who find it (very) difficult to make ends meet has decreased from 16.3% in the fourth quarter 2022 to 13.9% in the first quarter 2023. The satisfaction with the household’s financial situation has also improved: Belgians give an average score of 6.9 out of 10, compared to 6.7 in the previous quarter. These figures come from a survey where Statbel asks every quarter some 5,000 Belgians aged 16 to 74 about their personal well-being and living conditions.
Belgians are more satisfied with their financial situation
The share of Belgians who report a higher income compared to 12 months earlier has increased: 36.9% in the first quarter 2023 compared to 21.4% in the fourth quarter 2022. Salary indexation is mentioned as reason for the higher income in the first quarter 2023 in 82.7% of cases, compared to 76.6% of cases in the fourth quarter 2022.
In the same spirit, we see that the satisfaction with the household’s financial situation increased. After being asked to give a score out of ten to their financial situation, Belgians gave an average score of 6.7/10 in the fourth quarter 2022, which increased to 6.9 in the first quarter 2023.
Fewer Belgians find it difficult to make ends meet
Finally, the share of Belgians who find it (very) difficult to make ends meet has decreased from 16.3% in the fourth quarter 2022 to 13.9% in the first quarter 2023. The percentage decrease is the most significant in Brussels (from 32.9% to 25.8%) and in Wallonia (from 19.6% to 16.6%).
Feelings of happiness and loneliness remain stable
In the first quarter 2023, 8.7% of Belgians always (1.7%) or usually (7%) felt lonely in the four weeks prior to the survey, and 65.6% of Belgians always (8.1%) or usually (57.5%) felt happy in the four weeks before the survey. Belgians’ feelings of happiness and loneliness remain relatively stable throughout the quarterly measures from 2021 to 2023.
For people in Brussels, between the fourth quarter 2022 and the first quarter 2023, we see an increase in happiness (from 49.9% to 55.4%). Whereas for Flemings (71.3% to 70.1%) and for Walloons (61.9% to 61.1%), we do not notice any significant difference for those periods.
Single people struggle the most with loneliness: 16.9% of people living alone said they always or usually felt lonely in the first quarter 2023. While this was 9.1% for members of single-parent families, 6.1% for members of a family consisting of a couple with at least 1 child and 4.9% for couples without children.
Be sure to check out the figures in the downloadable table to learn even more about the personal well-being and living conditions of Belgians.
Source: STATBEL
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