Belgium is home to a substantial Albanian community with roots in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, historically centered on Brussels. Built through several waves of migration since the 1960s, it is one of the larger Albanian communities in Western Europe. This guide covers how many there are, where they live, and how the community formed.
It is part of our Albanians Around the World series.
Quick Facts: Albanians in Belgium
- Population: No official count exists. On January 1, 2026, Statbel recorded 8,358 Albanian, 6,498 Kosovo and 5,416 North Macedonian nationals, which leaves out everyone who has become Belgian. Community organizations such as CIRÉ cite an estimate of more than 60,000 people of Albanian descent.
- Where they live: Above all Brussels (Schaerbeek), with communities in Antwerp and Liege.
- Main origins: Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, with a smaller number from Montenegro.
- How they came: Guest workers from the 1960s and 1970s, then Kosovo War refugees and post-communist migrants.
On This Page
- How Many Albanians Live in Belgium?
- How the Community Grew
- Where Albanians Live
- Community and Notable Figures
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Albanians Live in Belgium?
There is no official count of Albanians in Belgium. Community organizations such as CIRÉ cite an estimate of more than 60,000 people of Albanian descent, without naming a source. Statbel, which counts by current nationality, recorded 8,358 Albanian, 6,498 Kosovo and 5,416 North Macedonian nationals on January 1, 2026. Brussels, and the commune of Schaerbeek in particular, is the community’s historic center. Exact figures are hard to pin down because most Albanians in Belgium hold Kosovar, North Macedonian, or other passports rather than Albanian ones, and Statbel’s public tables count by current nationality, so anyone who has become Belgian disappears from them.
How the Community Grew
The community was built in stages. The first sizeable group, about 350 political refugees from communist Albania, arrived by train at Andenne-Seilles on August 1, 1956. More Albanians arrived in the 1960s, coming alongside Turkish immigrants, followed by Yugoslav guest workers, including ethnic Albanians, in the 1970s and 1980s. From the late 1970s a growing number of Kosovo Albanians came as Serbian repression tightened, a flow that surged during the Kosovo War of 1998 to 1999, when Belgium received organized groups of refugees. The 1990s also brought migrants fleeing the collapse of communism in Albania, and family reunification has deepened the community’s roots since.
Where Albanians Live
Albanian life in Belgium is centered on Brussels, above all Schaerbeek, with further communities in Antwerp and Liege. Albanian cultural associations, mosques, and businesses are part of the fabric of the capital, and the community keeps close ties to Kosovo and the wider Albanian world.
Community and Notable Figures
The best-known Belgian Albanian is the footballer Adnan Januzaj, born in Brussels to a Kosovar Albanian family, who came up through Manchester United and represented Belgium at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. Community life is organized through associations such as VLERA, the Albanian student organisation of Belgium, along with cultural and religious groups across Brussels and Antwerp. In 2006 the community marked fifty years of Albanian presence in Belgium with an academic session in the Belgian Senate on September 22, 2006.
What Statbel Counts, and What It Misses
Belgium’s statistical office, Statbel, publishes the population of every municipality by current nationality on January 1 of each year, drawn from the National Register. It does not record ethnicity or language. On January 1, 2026, Belgium had 8,358 residents with Albanian nationality, 6,498 with Kosovo nationality and 5,416 with North Macedonian nationality, a combined 20,272 people.
Those figures are a floor, not a community count. Anyone who has become Belgian drops out of them, and so do Belgian-born children who hold Belgian nationality. The North Macedonia figure also includes people who are not ethnic Albanians. Statbel adds one more caveat of its own: since February 1, 1995, asylum seekers entered in the waiting register have not been included in the population statistics.
Nationality Figures Since 1992
The same Statbel file goes back to 1992, when Belgium counted just 552 Albanian nationals. Kosovo appears as its own nationality from 2009, a year after independence. Before that, the file only offers the broader categories of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro, which Statbel does not split by ethnicity.
| January 1 | Albanian nationals | Kosovo nationals | North Macedonian nationals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 552 | not listed | 2 |
| 2000 | 701 | not listed | 1,046 |
| 2005 | 2,010 | not listed | 2,223 |
| 2010 | 3,893 | 1,654 | 3,290 |
| 2015 | 5,100 | 4,553 | 4,280 |
| 2020 | 5,943 | 5,147 | 4,786 |
| 2026 | 8,358 | 6,498 | 5,416 |
The number of Albanian nationals has grown fastest in recent years, rising by about 2,400 between 2020 and 2026.
Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels Compared
The regional split is one of the surprises in the official data. Measured by current nationality, more Albanians, Kosovars and North Macedonians live in Flanders than in the Brussels region.
| Region (January 1, 2026) | Albanian nationals | Kosovo nationals | North Macedonian nationals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flemish Region | 3,829 | 3,754 | 2,621 |
| Brussels-Capital Region | 2,886 | 984 | 1,526 |
| Walloon Region | 1,643 | 1,760 | 1,269 |
| Belgium | 8,358 | 6,498 | 5,416 |
Brussels still carries real weight: the region holds about 35 percent of all Albanian nationals. Schaerbeek alone had 459 Albanian, 249 Kosovo and 386 North Macedonian nationals. But the single municipality with the most Albanian nationals is Ghent, with 734, ahead of the City of Brussels with 567 and Antwerp with 528.
Kosovo nationals are concentrated differently. Antwerp leads with 517, followed by Sint-Niklaas with 296, Schaerbeek with 249, Namur with 233 and Liège with 231. For North Macedonian nationals the top three are Antwerp with 515, Schaerbeek with 386 and Namur with 348. Because people who have become Belgian are missing from these tables, they cannot settle how large the Brussels community really is.
Born in Albania, Now Belgian
Country of birth tells a fuller story than nationality. Eurostat, using data supplied by Belgium, counted 16,538 residents of Belgium who were born in Albania on January 1, 2025. On the same date Statbel counted 8,097 Albanian nationals. In other words, about twice as many people were born in Albania as hold its passport.
Country of birth is much less useful for Kosovo. Eurostat shows only 615 residents recorded as born in Kosovo, against 45,942 recorded as born in Yugoslavia, a category that covers every republic of the former federation.
Naturalization accounts for much of the gap between the two measures. Eurostat’s figures on acquisition of citizenship show that between 2013 and 2024, 5,399 Albanian citizens, 4,554 Kosovo citizens and 2,636 North Macedonian citizens became Belgian. That is 12,589 new Belgians in twelve years who no longer appear in the nationality tables above.
August 1, 1956: The Train to Andenne-Seilles
The community dates its beginning to a single day. On August 1, 1956, a train carrying about 700 refugees from several Eastern European countries pulled into the station of Andenne-Seilles, in the province of Namur. According to the town of Andenne, roughly 350 of them were Albanians who had fled the regime of Enver Hoxha and had come from the Gerovo camp in Yugoslavia.
Andenne placed a commemorative plaque at the station for the 60th anniversary in 2016, and on September 12, 2026, the town and the Albanian community marked 70 years with a ceremony at the same station. The Belgian Senate’s event for the 50th anniversary took the form of an academic session on September 22, 2006.
Skanderbeg in Schaerbeek
Schaerbeek was one of the first places where Albanians settled after 1956, according to the refugee organization CIRÉ, and it still holds the community’s best-known landmark. A statue of Skanderbeg was inaugurated there on January 17, 1968, to mark the 500th anniversary of the hero’s death. CIRÉ notes that it was paid for by a subscription among Albanian exiles.
Other institutions followed. Kosovo Albanians founded the football club Kosova Schaerbeek in 1991. In 2006 the bookstore Albabel opened, which CIRÉ describes as the only bookstore in Belgium devoted entirely to Albanian books and culture. The same source names Gzim Sulejmani, of the Ecolo party, as the first candidate of Albanian origin elected to the Schaerbeek communal council.
1999: Evacuees and Asylum Seekers
Belgium’s part in the Kosovo refugee crisis ran through two channels. Under the Humanitarian Evacuation Program of UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, Belgium received 1,223 Kosovars from the camps in Macedonia between April 5 and July 6, 1999, out of 91,057 evacuated worldwide.
The asylum route was larger. UNHCR’s tables from the same period show about 6,100 asylum applications in Belgium from citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, mainly Kosovars, in 1998. That was 6.2 percent of all such applications in the countries UNHCR tracked. Another 3,752 were lodged in the first five months of 1999.
Belgium and Kosovo Since 2008
Belgium recognized Kosovo by royal decree on February 24, 2008, one week after the declaration of independence. The decree, signed by King Albert II and Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht and published on February 29, states that Belgium recognizes the new state under the name Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo’s foreign ministry lists an embassy in Belgium among its missions. Our list of the countries that recognize Kosovo has the full sequence.
More Belgian Albanians to Know
- Daniel Dardha, born in Mortsel in 2005, is a chess grandmaster with Albanian family roots through his father and grandfather. He won the Belgian championship at 13 and became a grandmaster in 2021, at 15.
- Lindon Selahi, born in Namur in 1999, comes from an Albanian family whose grandparents left Kumanovo, in today’s North Macedonia, and moved to Belgium in the 1960s. He played for Belgium’s under-16 team before making his senior debut for the Albania national football team in October 2019.
- Bleri Lleshi, born in Albania in 1981, is a Brussels-based philosopher and author. His books include De neoliberale strafstaat (2014) and De kracht van hoop (2018).
Key Dates for Albanians in Belgium
- August 1, 1956: about 350 Albanian refugees arrive at Andenne-Seilles station.
- January 17, 1968: the Skanderbeg statue is inaugurated in Schaerbeek.
- 1991: FC Kosova Schaerbeek is founded.
- 1998: about 6,100 asylum applications from citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- April 5 to July 6, 1999: 1,223 Kosovars arrive under the UNHCR and IOM evacuation program.
- February 24, 2008: Belgium recognizes the Republic of Kosovo.
- 2016: a commemorative plaque is placed at Andenne-Seilles station.
- January 1, 2026: Statbel counts 8,358 Albanian, 6,498 Kosovo and 5,416 North Macedonian nationals.
- September 12, 2026: the 70th anniversary ceremony at Andenne-Seilles.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Albanians live in Belgium?
There is no official count. Statbel recorded 8,358 Albanian, 6,498 Kosovo and 5,416 North Macedonian nationals on January 1, 2026, not counting those who have become Belgian. Community organizations cite an estimate of more than 60,000 people of Albanian descent.
Where do Albanians in Belgium live?
Mainly in Brussels, especially the commune of Schaerbeek, with communities in Antwerp and Liege.
When did Albanians come to Belgium?
From the 1960s as guest workers, then in growing numbers as Kosovo Albanians from the late 1970s, peaking with the Kosovo War of 1998 to 1999.
Sources
- Statbel, Belgian statistical office, population by nationality
- Wikipedia: Albanians in Belgium
- Statbel: Structure of the population, with the file Population per nationality and gender, per municipality since 1992
- Eurostat: Population on 1 January by age group, sex and country of birth (migr_pop3ctb)
- Eurostat: Acquisition of citizenship by age group, sex and former citizenship (migr_acq)
- Ville d’Andenne: 70 ans des Albanais en Belgique
- CIRÉ: Les Albelges de Schaerbeek
- Belgian Senate: Cinquantième anniversaire de l’immigration albanaise en Belgique
- UNHCR via ReliefWeb: Kosovo Crisis Update, 14 July 1999
- Moniteur belge via Etaamb: Arrêté royal du 24 février 2008 relatif à la reconnaissance de la République du Kosovo
Related Reading
- Albanians Around the World: The Global Diaspora
- Albanians in Switzerland
- The Kosovo War: A Complete History
Author: Val Demiri
Valbona is an editor and writer at ALB Connection, where she covers the people, businesses, and culture shaping the Albanian diaspora. A journalism graduate of the University of Iowa, her work spans community profiles, success stories, and features on Albanian life across the US, Europe, and beyond. She is drawn to stories that celebrate Albanian achievement and keep the community connected across borders.
