What has been killing people in Belgium?

This atlas compiles an unprecedented collection of data spanning from 1820 to 2025, revealing how and why people died, and how these patterns varied across regions, social groups, and eras.

Travel through time as you explore:

  • Interactive maps that show where mortality hit hardest — and where survival improved fastest.
  • Dynamic charts tracing the rise and fall of infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, accidents, and other causes of death.
  • Insightful articles that unpack how living conditions, sanitation, occupational risks, public health measures, and medical innovations reshaped the Belgian health landscape.

From cholera outbreaks in the 19th century to modern epidemics of cancer and cardiovascular disease, from poor urban workers to affluent suburbs, this atlas uncovers how mortality is never just biology. It reflects inequality, environment, politics, culture, and progress.

Why this matters?

Despite Belgium’s rich historical data, a crucial part of our health story remains unclear: we still don’t know how mortality inequalities evolved through time.

Key questions remain unanswered:

  • When did mortality inequalities first emerge?
  • How did they evolve as infectious diseases declined and chronic illnesses rose?
  • Who benefited earliest from public health improvements, and who fell behind?
  • How did social and spatial divides shape survival across different eras?

Understanding these long-term patterns is essential. By tracing how inequalities originated and changed over time, we gain insight into the roots of today’s health disparities, and in the policies and conditions needed to reduce them.

Mission statement

The Digital Atlas of Health Inequality in Belgium was created by the team of the INEQKILL Research Project. The atlas presents two centuries of social and spatial inequalities in cause-specific mortality across Belgium, from 1800 to 2025.  

By integrating historical and contemporary data, advanced geographic information systems, and interdisciplinary research, the atlas reveals how disparities in cause of death have evolved in response to changing living standards, public health interventions, and medical progress. 

Our mission is to share knowledge and new insights into the origins and development of all-cause and cause-specific mortality inequalities in Belgium, making this information accessible to researchers, policymakers, and the broader public. 

Through this open-access platform, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of how social, economic, and geographic factors have shaped life and death in Belgium, and to contribute to ongoing discussions about health equity.

How the atlas was created

The Digital Atlas of Health Inequality in Belgium is the result of a collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ghent University, and Université Catholique de Louvain. The project is an EOS Excellence of Science research project that was initiated in 2022. Read more about the project at www.ineqkill.be. 

Demographers, historians, sociologists, and geographers worked together on collecting data about health and mortality in Belgium. For more information on the sources used to construct the database see the sources tab. 

Funding

The Digital Atlas of Health Inequality is part of INEQKILL research project which was funded by EOS Excellence of Science Research call of 2021. 

Contact

You can reach out to us anytime at [insert email] or by filling out our Feedback Form. If you have a question, you might find the answer in our Frequently Asked Questions, where we cover topics such as data use and citation, translation of our materials, visualization tools, and more.