Monday September 14 2009 17:27
10°C / 17°C
In spring 2008, Flanders was more satisfied with life in general than the year before. Across the board at all educational levels, people reported an average of about 3.2 on a scale of 1 (unhappy) to 5 (very happy). The level of satisfaction with income rose according to educational level (2.6 to 3.1), while the reverse trend was seen on available free time, where the more educated you were, the less free time you felt you had (3.2 descending to 2.8 for graduates).
Feelings of anxiety did arise, though. The following table shows what people were most concerned about (percentage of respondents):
Cause Men Women All
Own health 65.7 74.9 70.4
Money 55.3 65.5 60.5
Future 52.3 62.9 57.7
Safety 51.6 62.0 56.9
Family 50.9 61.3 56.2
Politics 49.5 44.4 46.9
Unemployment 26.6 26.5 26.6
"Trust in our fellow man is important for social capital and social cohesion in a society," the report rather grandly states. Nothing much changed in 2008 for Flemish tolerance on the whole: young people aged 18-24 are more tolerant (3.1 on a scale of 1 to 5) than their elders, going down to a figure of 2.5 for those over 75. Half of all well-educated people think immigrants contribute to the good of society. So do 30% of young people, and a third of men. For the population as a whole, however, only one-quarter of people think the same. One-quarter also feel severe mistrust of immigrants; the figure rises according to age and goes down with education.
A fraction under 70% of households in Flanders have access to Internet, slightly more than the national figure (64%) but far behind Germany (75%) and the Netherlands (86%). The EU average is 60%.
The population is growing fastest in Brussels region since about 2000, with the rate in both Wallonia and Flanders more slow and more steady. Flanders' population will grow more slowly still than the other two regions in the years to 2060, even as the EU population as a whole climbs slowly to 2035, then begins to decline.
By far the majority of foreigners living in Flanders come from another EU member state, with fully half of the total from the Netherlands.
Origin %age of total
EU 63.6
Other Europe 10.0
Africa 12.7
Asia 8.4
America 2.9
Oceania 0.1
Refugees 2.4
The number of marriages in Flanders continues to rise, from a low in 2002 of about 22,000 to over 25,000 in 2007, just over the figure for 2000 when a decline started. In 2003, the region saw a high in the number of divorces at about 16,000. That's now down to under 15,000.
There are now more people living alone than in 1990, more children with one resident parent, more children with unmarried parents, more unmarried couples with or without children, more married couples without children, and more people living in an institution. The only two categories which have decreased since 1990 are children living with married parents, and married couples with children.
The Flemish government paid out financing, in decreasing order of expense, for the following areas: education (€9 billion), welfare and health, local government including urban policy, employment, roads and waterways, public transport, environmental measures, civil servants, science, culture and youth, housing, economic measures, media, and other.
Barely 30% of children in primary schools in Flanders are learning a foreign language, compared to 55% in the French-speaking part of Belgium. The figure is, however, similar to that in the Netherlands. In the first year of secondary school, however, students are studying an average of 1.4 languages, rising to 2.5 later in secondary school. In the Netherlands the figures are 2.7 and 2.6; in French-speaking Belgium 1 and 1.8; and in the UK 1 and 0.6.
As the new culture minister Joke Schauvliege reveals a preference for amateur theatre, the activities of amateur culture providers in Flanders show a rising trend. The umbrella organisations for various sectors have seen an increase in the number of local groups affiliated since 2004: dance, instrumental music, vocal music, folk and jazz, amateur dramatics and pop.
In Flemish cultural centres, the backbone of the cultural world in Flanders, there were 11,863 professional presentations in 2007, and 3,728 amateur shows. In both cases, theatre dominates. In the case of professional events, film and audiovisual follow, then popular music, humour and cabaret. For the amateurs, theatre is followed by popular music, dance and classical music.
In 2008, people attended the following types of event:
Type Never Once Several times
Classical 69.2 15.4 15.4
Rock/pop 64.8 17.0 18.2
Jazz/blues 86.6 8.8 4.6
Folk 83.0 12.9 4.1
Opera 92.1 5.7 2.3
Dance 81.1 13.5 5.4
Theatre 56.6 21.3 22.1
Het Laatste Nieuws dominated both the printed and online newspaper market, with 30% and 37% market share respectively. Then came, in order: Het Nieuwsblad, De Standaard, De Tijd, Gazet van Antwerpen, Belang van Limburg, De Morgen. Both De Standaard (10/15) and De Tijd (4/8) achieved higher market share online than in print.
People in Dutch-speaking Belgium (Flanders + Brussels) now have less faith in the media (press, radio and TV) than they did in 2003. A similar decline was seen in the EU as a whole. Flanders has slightly more trust than Wallonia in its media, with the exception of the printed press.
The following were the grounds for complaints to the Council for Journalism in 2003 and 2008:
Complaint 2003 2008
Careless reporting 26 146
Privacy 14 70
No right of reply 4 12
Failure to keep promises 1 12
Unfair trading 0 7
Conflict of interest 0 7
Libel, defamation 0 7
Undercover reporting 2 5
Other 2 7
Total cases 45 219
Flanders accounted for 58.7% of all tourism-related turnover in 2007, ahead of Brussels region (23%) and Wallonia (17.6%).
Investment in tourism by the regions was as follows:
Region €million %
Flanders 891 62.4
Brussels 193 13.5
Wallonia 308 21.6
None 38 2.7
Total 1,428 100
Flanders alone saw a decline in the number of overnight stays by tourists between 1999 and 2007. The 2007 figure of 23.3 million was down 1% on 1999. In Brussels (2007=5.1m) and Wallonia (2007=6.8m) there were increases of 19.5% and 1.5% respectively. Most of the fall in Flanders was made up of fewer Belgian visitors (down 3.2%) while there were more than double the number of Belgians lodging in Brussels in the same period. The number of foreign visitors was up in all areas. Overnight stays include hotels, campsites and holiday rentals.
By far the largest number of foreign visitors were the Dutch, up 18% to 3.35 million in 2007. They were followed by Germans (1.6m), British (1.4m) and French (1.1m). The largest increase came from India - up 119% on 1999.
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