Sources and methodology: where our Belgian company data come from

As of 5 November 2026: 779,149 records from Overture Maps, supplemented with contact details from the businesses’ own websites. The counted status is shown on the database status page.

Sources for Belgium

The Belgian company database is built from two sources: the open place data of Overture Maps and the contact details that businesses publish on their own websites. Official statistics only serve as a comparison.

• Overture Maps Foundation, Places

  Open map data with locations, business names, addresses and often phone, website and email address, merged from several sources. We use release 2026-10-21.0 (downloaded on 31 October 2026) and leave out 2,604 places in geographical categories (rivers, lakes, mountains …) and 4,651 cash machines, charging points and parcel lockers. The places dataset is licensed under the Community Data License Agreement – Permissive, Version 2.0 (CDLA Permissive 2.0).

  Processed: basis of all 779,149 records (as of 5 November 2026) · overturemaps.org

• Company websites

  Contact details that businesses publish themselves on their contact page, in their legal information or in the footer: email addresses, phone numbers and often the enterprise or VAT number. We read only the websites that the places themselves list.

  Being collected: 265,237 of 338,056 domains processed on 5 November 2026

• Official statistics (Statbel, Eurostat)

  Aggregate figures without names, for example 931,405 businesses in industry, construction and market services in 2024, and establishment units per province.

  Used on this website for context only · no details of individual businesses

What we do not use

• KBO Open Data. The Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE) of the FPS Economy offers its data free of charge, but only after registration; we therefore do not use it. According to a third-party summary (not verified by us: the licence text is behind a captcha), the data may moreover not be used for direct marketing with personal data, including all data on sole traders.
• KBO Public Search. The public search looks up one enterprise at a time and is not meant for bulk downloads; we use it at most to check an individual case by hand.
• Business directories. We do not copy entries from business directories or other providers’ databases.

The table can be scrolled sideways.

How we count

The figures on this website were counted in our database on 5 November 2026, not extrapolated. These rules apply:

• Record. A business or an establishment with its own location, as listed in the source. A business with several locations can appear more than once; the records have not been matched to the statistical definition of a business. In total: 779,149.
• Active. The source does not mark the place as permanently closed: 742,372 records.
• With contact. At least one of the fields phone, website or own email address is present: 696,077 records (89.3%).
• Own email address. An address not shared by three or more records; 11,882 shared addresses are excluded. This leaves 294,454 of the 329,288 records with an email address.
• Phone. Only Belgian numbers (+32) count; foreign numbers, for example of businesses near the border, are not counted.
• Website. Only a business’s own website counts. Links to the major social networks, Booking, Airbnb and Tripadvisor, maps and Google pages (Business Profile, Google Sites, goo.gl links), Linktree, WhatsApp and a few large international directories and marketplaces do not count as a website. Belgian directories such as goudengids.be or pagesdor.be are not yet filtered out and still count.
• Phone from websites. Only from tel: links and structured data, with the Belgian country code; numbers that appear on five or more domains (hosting providers, web agencies) are discarded.
• Province. Follows from the postcode of the address; 42,724 records have no usable postcode.
• Industry. Not yet assigned to any record (the categories of the map data are not NACE-BEL codes). The industry pages therefore show the official figure for the industry as the market size.

The figure in the quote is binding for a delivery. The database status page documents every published version.

Market figures and their sources

For context we give the market size according to official statistics next to the figures of our own database. Belgium – Eurostat, Structural Business Statistics (sbs_ovw_act): 931,405 businesses in the market economy (NACE sections B to S excluding O and S94, reference year 2024); the figures per industry come from the same table (Eurostat update of 30 September 2026, retrieved on 4 November 2026). Agriculture (section A) and the municipalities are not in the SBS: for these we use Statbel (VAT-registered businesses at the end of December 2025; 1,202,139 VAT-registered businesses in total, including the self-employed) and Statbel’s list of municipalities. EU – Eurostat, enterprises in industry, construction and market services 2024: EU-27 33,978,235 minus Belgium 931,405 = 33,046,830 in the other 26 member states. Eurostat data may be reused with acknowledgement of the source (Eurostat copyright notice); we take over Statbel figures unchanged and name the source. Official figures describe the market, not the size of an export.

How a record is created

This is how a record in the Belgian company database is created. We compile data from other countries on request (EU and other markets).

1. Basis from map data. The open place data of Overture Maps produce one record per place with name, address and the available contact details.
2. Details from websites. The business’s website adds email addresses and phone numbers that the business publishes itself.
3. Region. Province and region follow from the four-digit postcode of the address.
4. Email address type. For the export we classify each address as general (info@, sales@ …), personal (firstname.lastname@ …) or freemail, so that you can make a selection under the Royal Decree of 4 April 2003.
5. Format check. Phone numbers are written uniformly in +32 format, email addresses are checked for formal validity.
6. Duplicates. The same business can appear several times, for example with a Dutch and a French name. We do not yet merge duplicates between records.

We attach contact details from websites automatically via the domain of the website listed for the place. Where several places share the same domain (for example branches of a chain), they receive the same details from that website.

Legal framework for use

• Marketing email. Article XII.13 of the Code of Economic Law (WER) requires the recipient’s prior consent for advertising by electronic mail, text messages included. The Royal Decree of 4 April 2003 (art. 1) makes an exception for impersonal electronic addresses of legal entities (info@, contact@, sales@ …), for products intended for legal entities. Named addresses and sole traders need consent; every message must offer an unsubscribe option. According to the recommendation 01/2025 of the Data Protection Authority, a functional address used by a single person can still be personal data.
• Marketing calls. Under art. VI.110 §2 WER, calls by a person are allowed unless the subscriber has objected; under art. VI.112 the caller must first check whether the number is on the “Do Not Call Me” list (Bel-Me-Niet-Meer / Ne m’appelez plus). According to the FAQ of the Do Not Call Me list, this also applies to calls to businesses. Automated calls and fax require consent (art. VI.110 §1). The licence for the list is taken out by the caller.
• Personal data. Details of sole traders and named contact persons are personal data. We process them on the basis of legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); the information under Art. 14 GDPR is on the data subject rights page, the right to object under Art. 21 GDPR on the objection page.
• Buyer’s own responsibility. Anyone who acquires data from us is the controller for their own use within the meaning of the GDPR and needs their own legal basis. We do not provide legal advice.

In detail: B2B email and the Royal Decree of 2003 and telemarketing and the Do Not Call Me list.

Known limits

• Contacts go out of date. Businesses change phone numbers, email addresses and websites; time passes between a change and the update of the source.
• No delivery check. The number of email addresses is not a number of verified mailboxes; a phone number does not confirm that the line can be reached.
• Generic is not always impersonal. An address such as info@ of a one-person business can be used by a single person; check the address type and the legal form before a campaign.
• Uneven coverage. Industries where websites are common have far more contact details than industries whose businesses are rarely online; many self-employed people without their own premises are missing from map data.
• Region by address. Province and region follow the address of the place, not the area of operation, the language of the business or its registered office.

Industry registers: meant for look-ups

Several professions have their own registers or lists kept by a professional body or supervisor. They serve to check whether an individual business or professional is recognised; each register sets its own rules on how the data may be used, and we do not use them as a source. What exists in which industry is described on the industry pages:

• Business and consulting servicesProfessional lists and the CBE: what is public
• Construction and installationRegisters in construction: per firm, not as a list
• Manufacturing and industryWhere manufacturers are registered
• Real estate and property managersLicensed agents and syndics: a register to check a professional, not an address file
• Energy, water and wasteLicences and registers in the utilities sector
• Hospitality and tourismRegistrations in hospitality: not meant as an address book
• Agriculture and foodAgriculture and food: government registrations
• Transport and logisticsLicences and registers in transport
• IT and softwareNo professional register, but the CBE
• Architects and engineering firmsProfessional registers for architects and surveyors
• Healthcare, social care and wellnessApprovals and registers in healthcare
• Finance and insuranceSupervision and registers: public, but not an address file
• Municipalities and public sectorPublic bodies have an enterprise number too
• Motor trade and garagesNo separate register for garages
• Retail and online shopsShops and chains: one number, many establishments
• Wholesale and trade agentsRegistered office, depot and warehouse: what the KBO shows
• Pharmacies, opticians and hearing careProfessional registers exist, but we do not use them
• Education and trainingSchools in the KBO: one number for many schools
• Associations, sport and cultureNon-profits are public, de facto associations usually are not
• Cleaning and grounds maintenanceNo separate register, but many self-employed
• Staffing and recruitmentApproval by region, not an address file

Background: the enterprise number, KBO and VAT number and NACE-BEL 2008: industry codes for target groups.

Report an error

If you find incorrect information in your own record, write to us and we will correct it.

• Contact formState the company, address and the incorrect detail.
• Objection to processingFor sole traders and other data subjects who want to exercise their rights under the GDPR.
• info@basedecontacts.beDirect email to the operator.

Details on websites and in Overture Maps are maintained by the business or the source. We correct our record; a lasting correction also requires a change at the source.