Brussels region breaks 1.2 million population mark

Brussels is 1km² bigger than we thought - and its population has broken the 1.2 million mark for the first time.

Those are two of the findings in the latest annual report, Mini-Bru, from the Brussels Institute of Statistics and Analysis.

The Brussels region now officially measures 162.4m². But the extra square kilometre isn't because the region has annexed part of Flanders.

It is merely the result of an update to the way the surface area is measured, bringing the Brussels calculation in line with Eurostat norms.

The latest edition of Mini-Bru confirms that the Brussels region's populated exceeded 1.2 million in January this year.

Of these, 417,107 do not have Belgian nationality - with French, Romanian and Moroccan the top three foreign nationalities.

Photo: Nicola/Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons