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To promote transparency and provide information, the Federal Planning Bureau regularly publishes the methods and results of its works. The publications are organised in different series, such as Outlooks, Working Papers and Planning Papers. Some reports can be consulted here, along with the Short Term Update newsletters that were published until 2015. You can search our publications by theme, publication type, author and year.
This report presents 78 indicators and an assessment of their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015. It provides a detailed overview of Belgium's international position and, for the first time, a breakdown by region and for different population categories such as age, gender or income. Finally, it analyses the evolution of the well-being of Belgians and its sustainability for future generations.
Reports - OPREP202401 (fr), (nl),
A debate on the indicators for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals has been organised with experts from the federal public services and with the main advisory councils. The objectives of this debate were to establish a societal consensus on this set of indicators, to improve it and to set priorities among existing indicators to be added and among new indicators to be developed. The results of the debate will be used to adapt the set of indicators over the next 3 years: the majority of indicators will be maintained, some will be removed and others added.
Other publications - SDG_12872 (fr), (nl),
This report presents over eighty indicators and includes an assessment of their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015. It provides a detailed overview of Belgium's international position and of the differences between women and men. Finally, it analyses the evolution of Belgium's current well-being, among others in the context of (the end of) the Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the well-being of future generations and the rest of the world.
Reports - OPREP202301 (fr), (nl),
There are only eight years left to realise the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The report presents an analysis of the Federal Plan on Sustainable Development adopted in 2021. It provides a detailed overview of Belgium's current international position and the differences between women and men. Finally, it presents approaches for integrating quantitative elements into sustainable development scenarios.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2022 (fr), (nl),
Articles - Article 012 (fr), (nl),
This publication is the new version of the report on indicators complementary to GDP, published annually from 2016 to 2021. This renewed report on sustainable development indicators presents a larger number of indicators, covering the period from 1990 to 2020, depending on the availability of the data. In addition, it includes a review of the progress of these indicators towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015. It proposes a specific analysis of the well-being of the population 'Here and now' for Belgium in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and presents the four composite indicators to measure the sustainability of well-being (dimension 'Later'). This set will be completed in the forthcoming updates by composite indicators for the third and last dimension of sustainable development 'Elsewhere'.
Reports - OPREP202201 (fr), (nl),
Reports - OPREP202101 (fr), (fr), (nl), (nl),
Articles - Article 007
This Working paper proposes four new composite indicators to measure the wellbeing’s sustainability by using the stock of capitals passed on to the future generations. These indicators measure the evolution of the human, social, natural and economic capital. Their analysis shows that wellbeing’s sustainability in Belgium is questioned due to the diminution of the natural capital.
Working Papers - Working Paper 02-20 (fr), (nl),
This report presents the annual update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2018, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute with the development of this set of indicators and assigns this mission to the Federal Planning Bureau.
Other publications - OPREP202001 (fr), (nl),
This Working Paper examines which socioeconomic household characteristics determine greenhouse gas emissions in Belgium. The analysis is based on the PEACH2AIR database, which links the air pollution data with consumption expenditure of Belgian households as recorded in the 2014 Household Budget Survey.
Working Papers - Working Paper 08-19 (en), (fr), (nl),
The 2019 Federal Report on Sustainable Development takes stock of 51 indicators monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): the extrapolation/continuation of current trends does not allow all the objectives to be reached. The Report assesses the current sustainable development policies. It concludes that the federal public services have achieved concrete results, despite the lack of political momentum to reach the SDGs. This Report also analyses the impact on the SDGs of different modalities for applying a carbon tax and of alternative policies to company cars.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2019 (en), (fr), (nl),
This Working paper proposes eleven new composite indicators to measure changes in well-being for women, men, four age groups and five income categories (quintiles) in Belgium. They were constructed using a statistical analysis of the drivers of well-being specific to these population groups. These indicators are complementary to the indicator Well-being here and now that measures the average development in well-being in Belgium.
Working Papers - Working Paper 02-19 (fr), (nl),
This report presents the annual update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2017, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute with the development of this set of indicators and assigns this mission to the Federal Planning Bureau.
Other publications - OPREP201901 (fr), (nl),
The database PEACH2AIR links emissions of greenhouse and acidifying gases, of gases contributing to tropospheric ozone formation and particulate matter to consumer expenditures in Belgium in 2014. It relies on standardized air pollution data (including air emissions accounts), input-output tables and the Household Budget Survey. Analyses for 2014 show that energy products as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages are the most air polluting expenditure categories.
Working Papers - Working Paper 03-18 (en),
This Working Paper proposes an indicator to measure the development in well-being in Belgium. It was built from a statistical analysis of the determinants of well-being in Belgium. It has the advantage of being transparent, divisible and easy to communicate. The analysis shows that the well-being of Belgians generally decreased between 2005 and 2016. This decrease is mainly due to a deterioration in the health of Belgians.
Working Papers - Working Paper 02-18 (fr), (nl),
This report presents the update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2016, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute with the development of this set of indicators and assigns this mission to the Federal Planning Bureau.
This report also proposes a composite indicator to measure well-being Here and now‘. It should be completed in the forthcoming updates by composite indicators for the two other dimensions of sustainable development, ’Later‘ and ’Elsewhere‘.
The data are available on www.indicators.be.
Other publications - OPREP201801 (fr), (nl),
The 2017 Federal Report on Sustainable Development takes as its starting point the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN. The report assesses 34 indicators showing the evolution of Belgium towards the SDGs and examines the gap between existing scenarios and the SDGs in 3 areas: poverty, energy and transportation. Current developments usually go in the right direction, but most often lag far behind the quantified objectives.
Reports - Sustainable development Report 2017 (fr), (nl),
This Working Paper analyses the determinants of individual well-being in Belgium, using data from the EU-SILC survey. The analysis shows that on average health, both mental and physical, is the key determinant of well-being for Belgians. Enjoying sufficient income to access what is regarded as the prevailing standard of living in Belgium, having a job and being surrounded by loved ones also have a significant and positive impact on well-being. Besides these results for "average" Belgians, the analysis of different sub-groups highlights that these determinants are not of equal importance to all Belgians. These results contribute to the FPB’s work on the search for indicators complementary to GDP.
Working Papers - Working Paper 04-17 (en), (fr), (nl),
This report presents a first update of a set of indicators complementary to GDP. These indicators cover the period from 1990 to 2015, depending on the availability of the data. The Act of 14 March 2014, which complements the Act of 21 December 1994 establishing social and diverse provisions with a set of complementary indicators to measure the quality of life, human development, social progress and the sustainability of our economy, entrusts the National Accounts Institute (NAI) with the development and calculation of a set of indicators representing the four above-mentioned components. The calculation results are published every year. The same Act of 14 March 14 2014 assigns the development of this set of indicators to the Federal Planning Bureau. The NAI published a first edition of this set of indicators in February 2016.
Other publications - OPREP201701 (fr), (nl),
This Working Paper presents, on the basis of information available until July 2016, a projection at unchanged policy until 2030 of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Belgium, as defined in the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This population should amount to 2.232 million people in 2018, or 418 000 more than the Europe 2020 target. By 2030, its share should shrink to 16.1%, still 5.6 percentage points higher than the goal resulting from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Working Papers - Working Paper 12-16 (en), (fr), (nl),
This paper constitutes the contribution of the Federal Planning Bureau to the round table discussion with the Interdepartemental Commission for Sustainable Development of 11/2/2016 as part of task 1.3 of the SUSPENS research project. This paper gives a brief description of the climate and social policy in Belgium. The focus is on the policy goals to which Belgium has committed itself and on how far these have been achieved. The analysis shows that Belgium will have to make considerable efforts to achieve these goals and that cross-border cooperation will be necessary to realise the transition towards a low-carbon society.
Reports - REP 11362 (nl),
This Working Paper presents a first assessment of the progress made by Belgium towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 adopted by the UN. This assessment was performed on the basis of 31 indicators derived from the sustainable development indicators database developed at the Federal Planning Bureau. This Working Paper also sets out the methodologies used to select these indicators and assess their evolution compared to their objective. This assessment shows that in many fields, additional efforts will be needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Working Papers - Working Paper 07-16 (fr), (nl),
Other publications - OPREP201601 (fr), (nl), (fr), (nl), (fr), (nl),
This working paper describes TransAccount, an accounting model created at the FPB to build sustainable development scenarios, in particular their climate and energy segment, using a backcasting approach. To construct a scenario with TransAccount, the long term objectives and hypotheses of a global sustainable development scenario (for example Pyramid or Mosaic, scenarios published in the Belgian 4th Federal Report on Sustainable Development) have to be translated into quantitative objectives and hypotheses on technologies and on consumption and production patterns. The constructed scenarios highlight the changes needed in technology and in consumption and production patterns to meet the challenges of a sustainable development.
Working Papers - Working Paper 14-13 (fr), (nl),
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