As shown in OECD Regional Outlook 2023, large metropolitan regions across OECD countries have been moving ahead over the past 15 years, often enjoying stronger population growth, higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and better access to infrastructure and services than other regions. Yet many of these large metropolitan regions are also paying the price of their success, including in terms of challenges related to housing affordability, congestion and inequalities.

Although endowed with the smallest surface area and population size among the three regions making up the federation of Belgium, the Brussels-Capital Region enjoys a dynamic demography and a competitive economy. Home to 1.24 million people (10.6% of Belgium’s population) living in 19 municipalities including the City of Brussels, the region has grown rapidly (by 22% in 2005-22, compared to about 8-9% in the Territorial Level 2 [TL2] regions of Berlin [Germany] and Paris [France] for example). This growth has been primarily fuelled by international migration: in 2022, 53% of the region’s working-age population was foreign-born. The region is also relatively young: at 27.9% in 2022, its young-age dependency (people aged 15 or younger as a percentage of people aged 15-64) was one of the highest among all OECD TL2 regions, much higher than in Vienna, Austria (21.0%) or Hamburg, Germany (21.5%), for instance.

This chapter presents an overview of the Brussels-Capital Region’s urban development trends, the challenges it faces and the opportunities and strengths it has compared to other metropolitan regions in the OECD. The chapter starts by looking at demographic trends in the region. It then examines the region’s economic performance, highlighting that the Brussels-Capital Region is Belgium’s major economic engine but faces important challenges in the labour market. Finally, the chapter explores life in the Brussels-Capital Region through an analysis of urban inequalities, housing, mobility and accessibility, and the region’s environmental performance.

This chapter examines critical urban policy challenges in the Brussels‑Capital Region in the areas of urban planning and land use, housing and mobility. It argues that although the Brussels-Capital Region has comprehensive policy frameworks that guide development in these areas, their implementation could still be improved. The chapter discusses the challenges the region faces in using urban planning, housing and transport policies more strategically to realise its vision of a “20-minute city”. The chapter proposes specific recommendations to finetune and complement ongoing reform efforts to build a more affordable and accessible region.

This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the governance of the Brussels-Capital Region. After a detailed description of the current state of governance arrangements, the chapter identifies key challenges that have emerged over time and proposes policy recommendations to enhance efficiency, transparency and accountability, ultimately paving the way for a more robust and sustainable governance framework.

This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the public finances of the Brussels-Capital Region and its municipalities. After examining the evolution of fiscal federalism in Belgium and the Brussels-Capital Region over the past decades, this chapter presents a thorough examination of the key public finance challenges and puts forth a range of policy recommendations to tackle these issues, ultimately working toward bolstering fiscal sustainability.