Limitations in usual activities (i16)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment
In 2024, 25.6% of the population aged 16 and over in Belgium report being more or less severely restricted in their usual activities due to a 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).
Limitations in usual activities - Belgium and international comparison
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 23.9 | 23.3 | 23.6 | 25.2 | 27.2 | 25.0 | 25.6 | -1.2 | 0.4 |
| EU27 | -- | 25.7 | 25.7 | 24.6 | 24.0 | 24.9 | 23.9 | -0.1 | -- |
| //: 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 being more or less severely restricted in their usual activities due to a health problem in 2024 is 24,2% to 26,8% for Belgium.
Source: Statbel (2025), Limitation dans les activités quotidiennes, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale#panel-12 and Eurostat (2025), Self-perceived long-standing limitations in usual activities due to health problem, hlth_silc_12, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data 01/10/2025 11:00 (consulted on 02/10/2025); Statbel (2025), direct communication 6/10/2025
Limitations in usual activities by region - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brussels-Capital Region | 26.1 | 24.5 | 21.3 | -4.0 |
| Flemish Region | 25.8 | 22.9 | 24.2 | -1.3 |
| Walloon Region | 30.0 | 29.1 | 29.6 | -0.3 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||
Note: The 95% confidence interval for the share of the population aged 16 and over that reports being more or less severely restricted in their usual activities due to a health problem in 2024 is 19,2% to 23,3% for Brussels, 22,5% to 26,1% for Flanders and 26,9% to 31,5% for Wallonia.
Source: Statbel (2025), Limitation dans les activités quotidiennes, 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 communication 6/10/2025
Limitations in usual activities by sex - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| females | 26.9 | 26.6 | 26.0 | 27.2 | 28.9 | 26.9 | 27.7 | -0.8 | 0.1 |
| males | 20.7 | 19.8 | 21.0 | 23.0 | 25.3 | 23.1 | 23.4 | -1.5 | 0.8 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Limitation dans les activités quotidiennes, 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).
Limitations in usual activities by age - Belgium
percentage
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-24 | 7.8 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 10.6 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.6 | -0.9 | 2.4 |
| 25-49 | 16.0 | 14.9 | 15.4 | 15.7 | 17.1 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| 50-64 | 29.2 | 27.2 | 29.7 | 31.3 | 34.4 | 31.6 | 33.6 | -0.5 | 0.5 |
| >64 | 47.0 | 47.1 | 42.6 | 43.2 | 46.2 | 42.8 | 40.1 | -2.8 | -0.6 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Limitation dans les activités quotidiennes, 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).
Limitations in usual activities by income - Belgium
percentage of population aged 16 and over
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2024 | 2024//2019 | 2018//2005 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quintile 1 | 34.8 | 35.1 | 37.0 | 38.5 | 42.5 | 41.7 | 37.3 | -2.6 | 0.8 |
| quintile 2 | 32.0 | 33.3 | 31.3 | 35.6 | 34.7 | 34.0 | 35.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
| quintile 3 | 22.7 | 21.4 | 23.3 | 22.2 | 26.1 | 21.4 | 24.5 | -1.3 | -0.2 |
| quintile 4 | 16.9 | 15.0 | 15.2 | 16.5 | 18.8 | 16.7 | 17.2 | -1.8 | -0.2 |
| quintile 5 | 14.1 | 12.6 | 11.5 | 13.0 | 14.6 | 11.7 | 14.5 | -0.1 | -0.6 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Note: break in series: 2019; 2020 data collection impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
Source: Statbel (2025), Limitation dans les activités quotidiennes, 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 being more or less severely restricted in their usual activities due to a health problem. The data come from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. The limitation in question must have been felt at least during the six months preceding the survey. The participants have a choice between three answers to the question on this limitation: not at all limited, limited, but not severely, or severely limited. The last two answers are added for this indicator. 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 aged 16 and over that reports being limited in their usual activities due to a health problem must decrease.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include goal 3: "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". Not having limitations in usual activities contributes to health and well-being.
UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to objective 3 since the absence of limitation in daily activities is a measure of the overall health of the population.
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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