🇧🇪 Belgium

Belgium's demographic profile is aging but not collapsing — median age 41.6 and rising dependency ratio at 31.8% signal gradual decline rather than cliff edge. Unlike Southern peripheries, Belgium is a net RECEIVING country for migration from Wallonia's loss is partially offset by Brussels and Antwerp drawing internal and external migrants. However, the rising youth unemployment (12.9% → 18.9% over 12 months) is genuine — not emigration-masked — and signals entry-level labor market saturation that AI will accelerate. The Flemish-Walloon divide means Wallonia still bleeds youth to Brussels and France while bearing the demographic brunt.

Belgium has no coherent national AI strategy because it has six governments that can't agree on a defense budget, let alone a transformation roadmap. Federal AI policy is delegated to the Flemish and Walloon regional governments, who pursue modest digitization subsidies while deferring anything meaningful to EU-level frameworks. The country ranks mid-pack on the DESI index and has no serious retraining infrastructure targeting AI displacement of its logistics and administrative workforce.