BRUSSELS — As Flanders becomes increasingly multicultural, new figures have revealed that one in five Belgians who get married marry a foreigner. 

Ten years ago, just one in eight Belgians who married did so by entering into a union with a foreigner.

The figures were quoted in a report in Flemish daily newspaper ‘De Standaard’ on Monday.

The current number of Belgians marrying a foreigner represents a 25 percent increase compared with a decade ago.

In the same period, the number of marriages between two Belgians declined by 8.5 percent, the newspaper reported.

A small majority, (51.4 percent) of the total number of multicultural marriages are entered into by Belgian women.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news