Some 41.4% of Belgians aged between 18 and 74 provide care for a child, grandchild, partner or other family member, according to data from Statbel, the Belgian statistical office.
This equates to around 3.4 million people, Statbel noted, citing data from the country’s most recent Labour Force Survey.
Children account for the largest share of these responsibilities. More than 2.3 million people care for children under 15, including 2.1 million whose children live in their household.
Nearly 600,000 grandparents spend at least one hour a week caring for a grandchild under 15, while around 800,000 people provide care for a partner or another family member aged 15 or over who is vulnerable, ill or has a disability.
Care responsibilities
The study also explored the level to which care responsibilities impact employment. Among employed people with care responsibilities, more than a third (35.1%) reported making changes to their work arrangements to combine employment and care.
This figure stood at 45.3% for women, compared with 25.4% for men. Women were more likely than men to reduce their working hours to accommodate care responsibilities (19.4%), while men were more likely to change their working schedule without reducing working time (8.7%).
A change of employer or position is also more common among women (5.2%) than among men (3.1%).
Work-life balance
Statbel‘s data found that 44.8% of employed people with caring responsibilities experienced obstacles to combining work and care in 2025, compared with 33.0% in 2018.
Long working hours were reported by 13.7% of respondents, followed by demanding jobs at 11.1% and unpredictable working schedules at 10.4%. All three were reported more frequently in 2025 than in 2018.
‘Overall, women are more likely than men to report that their job is demanding or exhausting when combined with care responsibilities,’ Statbel noted.
Elsewhere, among non-working people, 16.7% said care responsibilities prevented them from taking up a job. The difference between women and men was significant: 23.6% of non-employed women cited care responsibilities, compared with 4.7% of non-employed men.
Statbel also examined what could help people with care responsibilities return to work. An adjusted work schedule was identified by 42.0% of respondents, while 32.3% said they would be willing to work limited hours rather than full-time. Regular remote working was cited by 28.7%. More affordable care was identified by 26.8% and higher-quality care by 24.4%.
‘Sandwich generation’
The data also identified 280,000 people aged 18 to 74 as being part of the ‘sandwich generation’, meaning they simultaneously care for a child or grandchild under 15 and a partner or other family member who is vulnerable, ill or has a disability.
‘Around 150,000 of them juggle these dual care responsibilities with a job. In addition, 4.9 million people have no care responsibilities, while 3.2 million provide care for only one group, either children or a partner/family member’, the statistics body noted. Read more here.
