page_title: Francization of Brussels
section_title: Expansion of the metropolitan area
hierarchical_section_title: Francization of Brussels / Language censuses / Expansion of the metropolitan area
caption_attribution_description: English: Evolution between 1866 and 1947 of the percentage of monolingual Dutch-speakers, French-speakers and bilingual people in the Brussels Capital Region based on the official linguistic censuses
context_page_description: The Francization of Brussels refers to the evolution, over the past two centuries, of this historically Dutch-speaking city into one where French has become the majority language and lingua franca. The main cause of this transition was the rapid, yet compulsory assimilation of the Flemish population, amplified by immigration from France and Wallonia.
  The rise of French in public life gradually began by the end of the 18th century, quickly accelerating as the new capital saw a major increase in population following Belgian independence. Dutch — of which standardization in Belgium was still very weak — could not compete with French, which was the exclusive language of the judiciary, the administration, the army, education, high culture and the media. The value and prestige of the French language was so universally acknowledged that after 1880, and more particularly after the turn of the century, proficiency in French among Dutch-speakers increased spectacularly.
context_section_description: Beyond the city of Brussels, the municipalities of Ixelles, Saint-Gilles, Etterbeek, Forest, Watermael-Boitsfort and Saint-Josse saw the most widespread adoption of the French language over the following century. In Ixelles, the proportion of Dutch monolinguals fell from 54% to 3% between 1846 and 1947, while during the same time the proportion of monolingual Francophones grew from 45% to 60%.  Whereas in 1846 Saint-Gilles was still 83% Dutch-speaking, one hundred years later half of its population spoke only French, and 39% were bilingual.  Similarly, Etterbeek evolved from a 97% Dutch-speaking village to an urban neighborhood in which half of its inhabitants spoke only French. The same phenomenon applied to Forest and Watermael-Boitsfort, where they went from completely Dutch-speaking to half monolingual French and half bilingual, with monolingual Dutch-speakers at only 6%. In Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, the proportion of monolingual Dutch-speakers equalled that of French-speakers in 1846, but by 1947 only 6% were monolingual Dutch-speakers, and 40% were monolingual French-speakers.
  In 1921 the metropolitan area was expanded further. The municipalities of Laken, Neder-Over-Heembeek, and Haren were incorporated into the municipality of Brussels, while Sint-Pieters-Woluwe became part of the bilingual agglomeration by law. After the language census of 1947, Evere, Ganshoren, and Sint-Agatha-Berchem were added to the bilingual agglomeration, although the implementation of this change was postponed until 1954 due to Flemish pressure. This was the last enlargement of the agglomeration, which brought the number of municipalities in Brussels to 19. In the peripheral municipalities of Kraainem, Linkebeek, Drogenbos, and Wemmel, where a French-speaking minority of more than 30% existed, language facilities were set up, although these municipalities officially remain in the Dutch language area.
  The censuses on the use of languages in the municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region have shown that by 1947 French was becoming the most spoken language. However, in 1947, the percentage of residents declaring themselves bilingual was 45%, the percentage of monolingual Dutch-speakers was 9% and the percentage of monolingual French-speakers was 38%. In practice the bilingual citizens were most of the time bilingual Flemings. They were nevertheless recorded as bilinguals and not as Dutch-speakers.
caption: The language censuses showed a simultaneous transition from the Dutch monolingualism to bilingualism and from the bilingualism to French monolingualism
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