Key Findings from the VUB/BRIO Taalbarometer
Conducted by the Brussels Information, Documentation and Research Centre (BRIO) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Taalbarometer is a landmark scientific survey tracking language knowledge, usage, and identity across the Brussels-Capital Region. Five editions carried out between 2001 and 2024 (published in 2025 as Taalbarometer 5) provide an authoritative 23-year longitudinal view of a city in profound linguistic transition.
The Trajectory of Contact Languages (2001–2024)
French, English, and Dutch are the three primary contact languages of the region. The survey tracks the percentage of adult residents who report speaking them 'good to excellent' across five editions:
- French: French remains the city's primary lingua franca at 81%, though it has steadily declined from 96% in 2001.
- English: English has experienced spectacular growth, rising to 47% in 2024 to become the second most widely known language in Brussels.
- Dutch: Dutch has achieved a historic rebound, recovering from a low of 16% in 2018 to 22% in 2024, driven by younger residents and Dutch-medium education.
Contact Languages Proficiency Trends (2001–2024)
Language Combinations & Multilingual Identity
How Brussels residents combine contact languages in daily practice, alongside their evolving self-perceptions of linguistic identity.
Language Combinations & The Inclusion Gap
As an international crossroads, Brussels residents combine multiple contact languages. The 2024 distribution shows unique multilingual dynamics, alongside a serious vulnerability gap:
- Leading Pair: The French + English bilingual pairing is the most prevalent, mastered by 27% of residents.
- Inclusion Gap: A growing 11% of residents speak neither French, English, nor Dutch well, marking elevated vulnerability to social, economic, and institutional exclusion.
- Trilingualism: Trilingual proficiency (French, Dutch, English) has doubled to 13% compared to 2018 (up from 6%), though still below its 2001 peak (16%).
Perception of Linguistic Identity
Beyond declared language competencies, the survey explores how Brussels residents perceive their personal linguistic identity:
- Monolingual Stability: The share of residents identifying as monolingual has stabilized at 26%.
- Multilingual Shift: Multilingual self-identification has risen to 38%, forming the single largest identity category.
- Traditional Decline: Traditional French-Dutch bilingual identity has contracted to 10%, overtaken by international bilingual profiles (26%).
Home Languages & Generational Dynamics
The diversification of home language backgrounds from childhood and diverging linguistic acquisition patterns across age cohorts.
A City of Changing Home Languages
TB5 reveals a profound diversification of the home language backgrounds across Brussels — reshaping the capital's linguistic foundations:
- 29% of residents grew up in households where neither French nor Dutch was spoken (28.8% in 2024) — up from 19.7% in 2001.
- One in four young adults (aged 18–30) grew up without a contact language at home, signaling a generational departure from the historic French-Dutch model.
- Households combining French with another heritage language are expanding across all age groups — including within families historically viewed as strictly Francophone.
Generational Trajectories & Education
Language acquisition and retention follow starkly divergent patterns across age cohorts in the Brussels-Capital Region:
- French proficiency has declined fastest among under-30s, decreasing by nearly 12 percentage points compared to older cohorts.
- The recovery of Dutch is driven primarily by younger generations and is now more evenly distributed across age brackets than in any previous edition.
- English proficiency is highest among youth, but has also made substantial gains among older cohorts — demonstrating systemic internationalization.
- English in Brussels is predominantly school-acquired: its expansion reflects the educational system rather than direct immigration flows.
The Long Tail: Over 100 Languages Spoken
In the 2024 survey, 104 distinct languages were identified among residents. Beyond the primary contact languages, Spanish (15%) and Arabic (12%) have established themselves as major community languages, followed by Italian (6%), German (6%), Portuguese (3%), Turkish (3%), and Romanian (2%). Other European and world languages like Polish (1%), Greek (1%), and Lingala (1%) continue to maintain a visible footprint of over 1% of the population.
Language in Public Life & Institutions
The Taalbarometer also investigates how residents navigate language in key public and institutional settings — from healthcare to local government administrations:
In healthcare and hospitals, French-only usage has declined from 87.5% in 2001 to 64.3% in 2024, with Dutch consultations rising to 17.0%.
In municipal administrations, French-only communication fell from 90.6% in 2001 to 60.3% in 2024, while Dutch usage increased to 21.8%.
Public services and civic life are experiencing a structural transition from traditional French monolingualism toward widespread urban multilingualism.
Methodological information
The Taalbarometer measures self-assessed language competence, defining 'knowledge' as the ability to speak a language 'good to excellent'. The 2024 edition (TB5) surveyed a representative sample of 2,500 adult residents of the Brussels-Capital Region, rigorously weighted across age, gender, education level, and geographic distribution based on official population registers.
Original Academic Source & Citation
Mathis Saeys, Robin Simon, Dimokritos Kavadias, Uitgeverij Academia Press (Lannoo), Ghent, 2025. Study commissioned and supported by the Flemish Government.
Frequently Asked Questions
Key questions and answers regarding the VUB/BRIO Taalbarometer survey methodology and findings.
What is the Taalbarometer?
The Taalbarometer is a landmark scientific survey conducted every 5 to 6 years by the Brussels Information, Documentation and Research Centre (BRIO) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Five editions (2001, 2007, 2013, 2018, and 2024) document 23 years of longitudinal linguistic trends across the Brussels-Capital Region.
How does the Taalbarometer measure language knowledge?
Language proficiency is self-assessed by respondents across speaking, understanding, reading, and writing. A language is classified as 'known' when a respondent reports their proficiency as 'good to excellent' (the top tiers on a standard 4-point scale).
What is the difference between contact languages and home languages?
Contact languages (French, English, and Dutch) are vehicular languages used to communicate across different linguistic communities in public, civic, and professional life. Home languages refer to the primary languages spoken with family and parents during childhood.