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Socio-cultural adult education

NACE 85593 · division 85 Education
Current registrations 994division 85: 35,440
Starters, 12 months 636.3 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Employment (FTE) 58544 employers · latest accounts
Median age 6.1 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 70.8%704 of 994 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

No bankruptcy in the past five years.

Filed accounts

NACE 85593 · financial year 2025 · 126 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
56.5%
division 46.6% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€5,648
division €8,935 · Belgium €16,497
Median equity
€224,011
division €66,772 · Belgium €98,338
Loss-making
36.0%
division 31.0% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
9.7%
division 14.2% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
6.9%
division 10.7% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
2.97
division 1.94 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
20.2%
financial year 2024, 119 filings · division 32.0% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
9.2%
of 141 companies with annual accounts · division 6.6% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 47.4%50.8%52.4%54.9%52.3%56.5%
Median net result €8,031€10,646€3,550€83€2,556€5,648

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Spread across the country

by region and province · 605 of 994 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 305 · 50.4%
  • Wallonia 157 · 26.0%
  • Brussels 141 · 23.3%
  • Abroad 2 · 0.3%
fewer moremax 141

Largest employers

NACE 85593 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 FemmaSchaerbeek 49.5 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Miroir VagabondHotton 36.7 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 DIOGENESBrussels 36.3 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 Groupe d'Animation de la Basse-SambreSambreville 31.3 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 Cosmos-ExcelsiorAnderlecht 25.6 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 37 companies
  • 329.01 Socio-cultural sector 21
  • 329 Socio-cultural sector 5
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 4
  • 329.02 Socio-cultural sector 4
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 2
  • 201 Independent retail 1
  • 304 Performing arts 1
  • 318 Family and elderly care services 1
Show the 1 others
  • 337 Auxiliary committee for the non-profit sector 1

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

Division 85: Education

Related activities

7 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Sports and recreation education85510 13,583 2,010 17 360
Other education85599 11,629 1,243 11 2,632
Vocational training85592 3,008 248 6 4,874
Cultural education85520 2,035 211 0 550
Driving schools for cars and motorcycles85531 1,039 97 6 1,211
Education85532 292 21 0 62
Show all 7 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Education85591 113 3 0 320

Bankruptcies per year in division 85

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies273633494850294759626263
Jobs lost3550611028112255150119107111108

2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 85

741 employers
Median
€65,000
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€49,100 to €81,400
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
42 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €63,500 €44,500 to €83,400 375
10 to 49 FTE €64,800 €54,000 to €78,300 311
50 to 249 FTE €74,400 €55,200 to €82,700 49

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 85
Number
66
Half have run longer than
13 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
27%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,621 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).

This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 9 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.

Outcome by court and division

8 of the 11,081 companies in NACE division 85 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Netherlands (3), France (2) and Spain (1). Together they employ 151 of the division's 27,952 FTE: 0.5%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €2.52bn awarded 1,674 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Subsidies voor de bouw en renovatie van scholen
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €4.68bn paid 1,333 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Allocation de fonctionnement à l'Université catholique de Louvain
  • Federal transfers 257.0m amount as published 83 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Dotatie aan het Instituut voor gerechtelijke opleiding
  • EU budget €1.21bn attributed share 87 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Horizon Europe
  • EU research €2.43bn EU contribution 44 recipients · 2007 to 2027 · largest: Horizon Europe

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Socio-cultural adult education

Balance sheet and result. Liquidity of 2.97 is above Belgium's 1.66. The median net result of €5,648 is below Belgium's €16,497. Return on equity of 6.9% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.0% is below Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 23.4% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. In 12 months, 6.3 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 59% of the 87 NACE divisions. Half of the companies are younger than 6.1 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 20.2% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 179 of the 585 FTE: 30.7%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 47.4% in financial year 2020 to 56.5% in financial year 2025. The median net result fell from €8,031 in financial year 2020 to €5,648 in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 09-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 85593 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,461 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,442 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.