Long-standing illness or health problem (i18)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment
In 2024, 27.7% of the population aged 16 and over in Belgium declare themselves as having a long-standing illness or health problem. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must decrease. Between 2005 and 2024 the trend is unfavourable (assessment of November 2025).
Long-standing illness or health problem - Belgium and international comparison
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 25.1 | 25.6 | 24.5 | 24.7 | 26.1 | 24.8 | 27.7 | 1.2 | -0.1 |
| EU27 | -- | 31.9 | 35.4 | 36.0 | 35.7 | 35.2 | 35.3 | -0.2 | -- |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: BE 2019; BE 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic The 95% confidence interval for the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports having a long-standing illness or health problem in 2024 is 26% to 29,2% for Belgium.
Source: Statbel (2025), Maladie ou problème de santé de longue durée, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 and Eurostat (2025), People having a long-standing illness or health problem, hlth_silc_11, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 01/10/2025 11:00 (consulted on 02/10/2025); Statbel (2025), direct communciation 6/10/2025
Long-standing illness or health problem by region - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region | 30.1 | 27.8 | 26.3 | -2.7 |
| Flemish Region | 23.3 | 21.9 | 25.5 | 1.8 |
| Walloon Region | 29.8 | 29.2 | 32.1 | 1.5 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||
Note: The 95% confidence interval for the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports having a long-standing illness or health problem in 2024 is 23,6% to 28,7% for Brussels, 23,4% to 27,7% for Flanders and 28,7% to 34,8% for Wallonia.
Source: Statbel (2025), Maladie ou problème de santé de longue durée, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025) and direct communciation 6/10/2025
Long-standing illness or health problem by sex - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 27.3 | 28.0 | 26.5 | 26.5 | 27.0 | 26.3 | 29.2 | 1.6 | -0.2 |
| males | 22.7 | 23.1 | 22.5 | 22.9 | 25.1 | 23.3 | 26.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Maladie ou problème de santé de longue durée, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
Long-standing illness or health problem by age - Belgium
percentage
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-24 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 9.1 | 11.0 | 10.2 | 9.3 | 9.9 | -0.6 | 1.1 |
| 25-49 | 17.4 | 17.9 | 17.5 | 16.9 | 18.2 | 16.8 | 20.2 | 2.1 | -0.2 |
| 50-64 | 31.4 | 32.2 | 31.7 | 31.0 | 33.6 | 32.0 | 36.1 | 1.4 | -0.1 |
| >64 | 46.1 | 44.8 | 39.6 | 39.3 | 39.8 | 39.4 | 40.4 | 0.3 | -1.2 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Maladie ou problème de santé de longue durée, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
Long-standing illness or health problem by income - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 35.0 | 35.1 | 35.4 | 35.8 | 38.6 | 38.6 | 37.6 | -0.5 | 0.2 |
| quintile 2 | 32.2 | 35.5 | 32.3 | 32.6 | 31.5 | 32.5 | 34.8 | 2.0 | 0.1 |
| quintile 3 | 24.5 | 24.4 | 23.7 | 22.2 | 25.6 | 21.9 | 27.1 | 1.1 | -0.8 |
| quintile 4 | 18.5 | 17.7 | 16.9 | 17.8 | 19.5 | 17.6 | 21.8 | 2.3 | -0.3 |
| quintile 5 | 16.1 | 16.1 | 14.8 | 15.4 | 15.8 | 13.9 | 17.6 | 2.2 | -0.3 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Maladie ou problème de santé de longue durée, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
Definition: the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports having a long-standing illness or health problem. The data come from the European Union's Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. In this survey, participants are asked to indicate whether they have a long-standing health problem or illness. Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here for Belgium come directly from Statistics Belgium. The data for international comparison come from Eurostat. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty must be taken into account. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.
From 2019 onwards, the survey methodology has been thoroughly reviewed for better accuracy. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted data collection. This makes it difficult to compare the results of SILC 2020 with those of previous years. (Statbel, 2021). Therefore, they are not used to calculate and evaluate the long-term trend.
The following breakdowns are available for this indicator: region, sex, income and age.
Goal: the share of the population suffering from a long-standing health problem or illness must decrease.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 3.4: “By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being”. The change in the share of people suffering from long-standing diseases provides in particular information on non-communicable diseases and well-being.
UN Indicator: the selected indicator is related to indicator 3.4.1 - Mortality of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease. Indeed, before dying of a chronic disease, people are affected for a certain period of time by a long-term illness or health problem. Tracking this helps to understand the mortality pattern.
Sources
- Statbel (2021), SILC FAQ, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/faq, see in particular "Y a-t-il des ruptures de séries dans la chronologie de l'enquête SILC" (consulted on 27/08/2025)
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