Definition: the share of the population living in a dwelling with a leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundations, or rot in the window frames or the floor.

The data are based on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. Statbel organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. 2004 is the first year for which European harmonised data have been collected to calculate the indicator. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on a survey, a margin of uncertainty must be taken into account. The confidence intervals are available on request from Statbel.

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.

Goal: the share of the population living in inadequate dwellings must be reduced to zero per cent by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 11.1: “By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums”. The share of the population living in inadequate dwellings should tend to zero.

The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision for Sustainable Development includes the following objective: “The preconditions for the well-being of citizens will be met, i.e. (...) decent housing” (introduction of the challenge A society promoting social cohesion; Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).

International comparison: in 2020, the share of the population living in inadequate dwellings is higher in Belgium (15.7%) than in the EU27 (14.8%). The difference between the EU27 and Belgium increases from 2.7 to 4.1 percentage points between 2010 and 2019, however with a sharp decrease in 2020 to 0.9 percentage point. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance in 2020 and is below the European average. In that year, Finland ranked first with 4.5% and Cyprus last with 39.1%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 11.1.1 - Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • Belgian Official Gazette: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/welcome.pl; research on http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/doc/rech_f.htm (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • Statbel (2021), Risk of poverty or social exclusion, https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/households/poverty-and-living-conditions/risk-poverty-or-social-exclusion#documents (consulted on 21/06/2021).

  • 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 19/11/2021).

More information is available in French and Dutch.