Brussels vs Flanders vs Wallonia: the procurement map of Belgium
One Flemish district rewrites the competition story
The headline figure from Belgium's TED (EU Tenders Electronic Daily) award data is not about volume — it is about rivalry. NUTS sub-region BE213 (Leuven district, Flemish Brabant) recorded an average of 9.46 bids per awarded contract, more than double the national-level code (BEL) average of 4.57 and well above the Brussels capital region (BE100) average of 4.51. That single data point suggests a markedly more contested procurement environment in Leuven than almost anywhere else in the country for which data is available.
Where the volume sits
By raw award count, Brussels (BE100) leads with 2,030 awards, followed by the national/unspecified code BEL with 1,357. Among clearly regional sub-codes, the Flemish Antwerp district (BE211) ranks third at 788 awards, and Wallonia's Liège arrondissement (BE332) is the most active Walloon sub-region at 393 awards.
Grouping by broad region (BE1x = Brussels, BE2x = Flanders, BE3x = Wallonia), the Flemish sub-regions collectively account for the largest number of distinct NUTS entries in the dataset, though Brussels's single code alone outweighs any individual Flemish or Walloon sub-region in raw volume.
Competition intensity: the thin end of the market
Average bid counts — reported only where contracting authorities (the public bodies issuing contracts) disclosed the number of tenders received — reveal a wide spread:
| Sub-region | Awards | Avg bids | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| BE213 (Leuven) | 354 | 9.46 | 100% |
| BEL (national) | 1,357 | 4.57 | 98.2% |
| BE100 (Brussels) | 2,030 | 4.51 | 98.9% |
| BE234 (Turnhout) | 450 | 3.79 | 99.1% |
| BE242 (Mechelen) | 376 | 3.07 | 98.1% |
| BE328 (Thuin) | 126 | 2.76 | 74.6% |
| BE255 (Veurne) | 125 | 2.54 | 98.4% |
| BE231 (Hasselt) | 71 | 2.42 | 97.2% |
At the thin end, BE231 (Hasselt, Limburg) averaged just 2.42 bids per award across 71 contracts, and BE255 (Veurne, West Flanders) averaged 2.54 across 125 awards — both with high coverage, meaning the low figures are unlikely to be a disclosure artefact. BE328 (Thuin, Hainaut) also recorded a low average of 2.76, though its coverage was only 74.6%, so that figure should be treated with more caution.
The outlier worth noting
The dataset includes 94 awards tagged to LU000 (Luxembourg — the country, not the Belgian province), with an average bid count of 20.29 at 100% coverage. This figure is a significant outlier and likely reflects a different procurement context or notice-tagging practice; it is reported here for completeness but is not directly comparable to Belgian regional data.
What the data does not show
Contract values are not included in this dataset, so it is not possible to say which region attracts the highest-value procurement. Award counts alone do not capture the economic weight of contracts.
Methodology note
Data source: TED (EU Tenders Electronic Daily), Belgian contracting authorities. NUTS codes (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics — the EU's standard geographic classification) are taken as published on each notice. The time range covered by this extract is not specified in the underlying data. Coverage percentages indicate the share of awards within each sub-region that reported a bid count; average bid counts are calculated over that reported subset only and may not represent all awards. The code BEL denotes notices assigned to Belgium without a more specific sub-regional code. BEZZZ (326 awards, avg 5.10 bids) is an unspecified or extra-regio Belgian code and is excluded from regional comparisons above.