About the atlas
The Atlas of Mortality Inequalities in Belgium brings together more than two centuries of mortality data, from 1800 to 2025. It provides an accessible way to explore how mortality has changed over time, across regions, and between different population groups.
Combining historical and contemporary data with interactive maps, charts and explanatory articles, the atlas shows how patterns of death have evolved alongside changes in living conditions, public health, medical knowledge and society. It is designed for researchers, policymakers, teachers, students and anyone interested in the history of health in Belgium.
Throughout the atlas you can explore:
- Maps showing how mortality varied across Belgium and how regional patterns changed over time.
- Charts and visualisations tracing long-term trends in life expectancy, mortality, and causes of death.
- Articles explaining how epidemics, living conditions, public health measures and medical advances shaped mortality over the past two centuries.
From 19th-century cholera epidemics to today’s chronic diseases, the atlas shows that mortality is shaped not only by biology, but also by social, economic, environmental and political circumstances.
What you'll find in the atlas
The atlas examines mortality from multiple perspectives, allowing you to explore both long-term trends and regional differences.
- Mortality over time – Discover how mortality in Belgium has changed over two centuries. Follow the rise in life expectancy, the changing risks of death throughout the life course, and the transition from infectious diseases to chronic conditions as the leading causes of death.
- Causes of death – Explore dedicated pages on major causes of death—including infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, alcohol-related mortality and many others—and learn how their importance has changed over time. The atlas also includes an overview of Belgium’s major epidemics.
- Social and spatial inequalities – Mortality has never been distributed evenly across society. The atlas examines how place of residence, socioeconomic circumstances, education and access to healthcare have influenced survival, revealing how inequalities developed and changed over time.
All analyses are based on historical and contemporary sources, including civil registration records, censuses and official cause-of-death statistics. Detailed information on the underlying data can be found on the Sources page, while the Glossary explains key concepts used throughout the atlas.
Why this matters?
Mortality reflects much more than disease alone. It is influenced by the conditions in which people are born, live and work, as well as by access to healthcare, public health interventions and broader social change.
By tracing mortality patterns across more than two centuries, this atlas makes it possible to examine how health inequalities emerged, evolved and, in some cases, persisted. Understanding these long-term developments provides valuable historical context for present-day differences in health between regions and population groups.
The atlas helps address questions such as:
- When did mortality inequalities emerge?
- How did they change as infectious diseases declined and chronic diseases became more common?
- Which populations benefited first from improvements in public health and medical care?
- How have social and geographic differences influenced survival over time?
The research behind the atlas
The Atlas of Mortality Inequalities in Belgium was developed within the INEQKILL Research Project, a collaborative research programme running from 2022 to 2026. The project is funded through Belgium’s Excellence of Science (EOS) programme by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and the Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.–FNRS).
INEQKILL brings together demographers, historians, epidemiologists and geographers from Ghent University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and UCLouvain to investigate the long-term evolution of mortality inequalities in Belgium.
The atlas translates the project’s research into an open-access resource. The maps, visualisations and articles presented on this website are based on the research carried out within the project and are intended to make these findings accessible to a broad audience.
The team
The atlas is written and built by the researchers and staff behind the INEQKILL Research Project. Meet everyone involved on our Team page.
Get in touch
Questions about the project, the data, or a possible collaboration? Contact us — we’re happy to hear from researchers, teachers, journalists and curious visitors alike.
Colophon
The Ineqkill Atlas is published by the INEQKILL research project.
Coordinating institution: Vrije Universiteit Brussel — Interface Demography Pleinlaan 5 (Room 2.17), 1050 Brussels, Belgium Contact: sylvie.gadeyne@vub.be
Partner institutions: Ghent University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and UCLouvain. Full research team details are available on the [Team] page.
Funding: INEQKILL is funded through the Excellence of Science (EOS) programme, a joint initiative of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and the Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.–FNRS), for a four-year period (2022–2026).
How to cite this atlas “Ineqkill Atlas (2026). Atlas of Mortality Inequalities in Belgium, 1800–2025. INEQKILL research project, Ghent University / VUB / UCLouvain. mortalityatlas.ugent.be” . (A persistent identifier (DOI) for this atlas is not yet available; this section will be updated once one has been assigned.)
Copyright © INEQKILL. CC BY-NC 4.0 (“Attribution-NonCommercial”)