How healthy is youth entrepreneurship in Brussels?
Newly published 2025 figures show that Brussels had 18,174 self-employed residents aged 18 to 29, with young people entering self-employment faster than older groups but still facing pronounced gender, finance and information gaps.
In 30 seconds
- Brussels counted 18,174 self-employed residents aged 18 to 29 in 2025.
- Young people formed 14.5% of Brussels’ self-employed population, compared with 11.2% nationally.
- In 2025, 7,138 young people started and 2,318 ceased a self-employed activity in Brussels.
- Men accounted for 68.8% of Brussels’ young self-employed population.
New figures published in in August show that 18,174 residents aged 18 to 29 held official self-employed status in 2025, making young people a larger share of the capital’s independent workforce than in Belgium overall. The INASTI data analysed by hub.brussels and reported by put their Brussels share at 14.5%, against 11.2% nationally, while registrations among this age group have risen by 32.6% since 2015.
For young people considering a business—and for families, schools and employers helping them—the figures describe a market that is unusually open to early experimentation but difficult to navigate. More than one in three people starting a self-employed activity in Brussels in 2025 was under 30, BX1 reported. Yet hub.brussels says many potential founders remain unaware of the public guidance available, particularly when they are outside established entrepreneurial networks.
The absolute numbers require context. Of Belgium’s 142,262 self-employed people aged 18 to 29, 63.7% lived in Flanders, 23.5% in Wallonia and 12.8% in the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels therefore trails the larger regions in raw numbers. Relative to its population, however, BX1 calculated that it had about 1,453 young self-employed people per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 1,322 in Flanders and 903 in Wallonia. That makes the capital the strongest of the three regions on this particular measure.
The momentum extends to new registrations. INASTI recorded 7,138 young people beginning an independent activity in Brussels in 2025, up 7.3% from 6,654 in 2024. It also recorded 2,318 cessations, 2.1% more than a year earlier. These flows show an active ecosystem, but not whether individual ventures become durable businesses: hub.brussels told BX1 that it lacks consolidated survival data covering one or three years.
The social divide is harder to overlook. Men accounted for 68.8% of Brussels’ self-employed people aged 18 to 29 in 2025. Separate experimental statistics published by for 2024 use a broader concept—entrepreneurial roles held by self-employed founders, directors or managers—and found that women occupied 40% of such roles nationally among under-30s. Because the datasets count different things, they should not be treated as a direct Brussels-versus-Belgium comparison. Together, however, they reinforce the need to examine who can turn an idea into a formal and sustainable activity.
There are two distinct readings of the trend. Florence Ortmans, speaking for the regional economic agency hub.brussels, presents the growth as evidence of a dynamic young entrepreneurial population. The agency coordinates the network and points founders towards grants, microcredit, crowdfunding or bank finance according to the project. Its 2025 activity report says eight YET-supported initiatives reached or sensitised 6,513 young people, accompanied 253 projects and contributed to 30 business creations.
Young founders encounter a less institutional reality. Rayan El Majdoub, an 18-year-old from Berchem-Sainte-Agathe profiled by BX1, has financed part of his driving-test preparation platform PermisPass through a student job. His experience illustrates why formal equality of access does not mean equal capacity to finance a launch: savings, time, networks and knowledge of administration remain unevenly distributed. Hub.brussels itself acknowledges a persistent information and communication deficit around existing support.
Where this is happening
View on map Brussels →Brussels the city-region should not be confused here with Brussels the EU capital. The policy levers closest to these founders—incubators, regional grants and business guidance—are chiefly regional and Belgian. The European Union provides a secondary layer through programmes such as Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, which the says allows new founders to work with an experienced entrepreneur abroad for one to six months, as well as EU-backed finance delivered through intermediaries.
What happens next is less about celebrating registration totals than measuring endurance. Regional institutions need better survival data, clearer outreach beyond familiar business networks and evidence on whether women and lower-income founders reach finance on comparable terms. The next annual INASTI figures will show whether the rise continues; they will not, by themselves, reveal which young businesses produce stable incomes or lasting jobs.
What to do
Brussels residents aged 18 to 29 considering self-employment can use hub.brussels and Young Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow as starting points for information, incubation and project support. Before registering, compare financing needs, available time and access to professional networks rather than treating registration as proof that a venture will provide secure income. Readers assessing regional policy should distinguish INASTI registration figures from Statbel’s differently defined entrepreneurial statistics. The next useful evidence will be follow-up data showing how many of the 7,138 activities started in 2025 remained active, and whether support reached more young women.
Impact
Regional — The Brussels-Capital Region has a proportionally large young self-employed population and operates four public incubators, but outreach and reliable survival measurement remain weaknesses in its support system.
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationshub.brussels and the regional support ecosystem
Florence Ortmans of hub.brussels frames the rising number of young self-employed residents as evidence of entrepreneurial dynamism. The agency argues that access to finance is assessed according to the project, business model, development stage and founder’s resources rather than age alone, while public incubators and YET provide routes into support.
Young founders without established networks
Rayan El Majdoub’s experience presents a more constrained view: he has combined secondary studies, a student job and development of PermisPass because the venture’s income does not yet cover its costs. This perspective emphasises that formally available support or age-neutral lending criteria do not eliminate unequal savings, contacts, time or practical knowledge.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.