March 8, 2024

Almost a third of self-employed entrepreneurs are women in Belgium

On the occasion of Women’s Day on 8 March, Statbel maps female entrepreneurship based on data from 2022. In Belgium, 1,590,166 self-employed entrepreneurs have positions of founders, directors and business managers. 31% of these positions were occupied by women in 2022. This is an increase of one percentage point compared to 2019 when 30% of self-employed entrepreneurs were women.

Female entrepreneurs are the most represented in the health sector

Sectors which attract the most female entrepreneurs are:

  • Human health and social work activities (21%)
  • Professional, scientific and technical activities (18%)
  • Other service activities (15%)
  • Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (14%)

The health sector is the only sector where women are in the majority with 61% of self-employed entrepreneurs. The two other sectors which are the most “female” are the other service activities (47%) and education (45%). At the other end of the scale, the female presence drops to 7% in construction and 13% in transportation and storage

Female entrepreneurs are less represented in the Brussels-Capital Region

There are 32% of female entrepreneurs in the Walloon Region, 31% in the Flemish Region and 28% in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Proportionally, entrepreneurship attracts more young women

The highest proportion of women is in the 40-49 age group (131,833). However, women are proportionnally more present in the lower age groups. 41% of self-employed entrepreneurs younger than 30 are women versus only 30% in the most widespread age group for all genders combined, the 50-59 age group.

Source: STATBEL
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