Why is the number of people with a driving license in Belgium decreasing?

Almost 10 percent more driving licenses than ten years ago, these are the figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBR) in the Netherlands. In Belgium, newspapers have been headlines for years that the pink paper is losing popularity, except for a brief catch-up post-Covid. There the decline is at least 10% and sometimes even 20% or more, depending on the province. Why the big difference with the Netherlands?

Young people

From a Belgian perspective, the figures of Dutch people in their twenties are particularly striking. The age group that causes the largest decline in the number of driving licenses in Belgium is stable and even growing slightly in the Netherlands. The larger surface area and lower population density certainly play a role in this, but it does not alter the fact that Belgian young people no longer see the car as a must. Young adults in Belgium are more likely to see four-wheelers as a burden, which causes parking problems and, above all, costs a lot of money. Money they would rather spend on traveling or on the latest smartphone. Moreover, fewer and fewer Belgian young people are inclined to obtain a driving license later in life, because they simply do not see the point in it. The car as a status symbol has completely disappeared for them.

However, public transport in Belgium is not such that you can get everywhere without a car, which may be the reason why Walloon young people drop out less en masse. Why the number of driving licenses issued in Brussels, alias the European capital of traffic jams, continues to rise is a mystery. The popularity of car sharing could partly explain this. But back to the general trend, which is downwards and has another cause: the tightening of the rules for obtaining a driving license in 2017. Since then, candidates in Flanders have had to practice with a provisional driving license for their practical exam for not three but nine months. The mandatory return period, which provides half a day of training six months after obtaining a driver’s license, is also a stumbling block for many. In addition, free theory lessons for final year students in high school have also been abolished.

70+ people

Perhaps even more striking than the contrast between young people is the difference among people over 70. An age group that is responsible for the greatest growth in the Netherlands (from 1.9 million driving license holders in 2014 to 2.75 million in 2024) but is already declining in Belgium. The whispered validity restriction on the driving license of that group ultimately did not come about, but it did encourage Belgian seniors to think about their car use. Some of them voluntarily take a fitness to drive test because they notice that their driving skills are deteriorating. If this results in a certificate of unsuitability, which turns out to be the case for 10% of the tested people, then most drivers hang up their keys. The fact that more and more drivers are driving around in Belgium without a valid driver’s license – according to estimates even more than 100,000 – does not exactly improve the Belgian statistics.