Belgium, press rank #15 · ~$1,900/mo

Can you live unwatched in Antwerp?

Surveillance, facial recognition and crypto rules read here for the city itself, not the national average.

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The privacy scorecard

The six marked ° below are read for Antwerp itself. The rest are set by Belgium’s national law, the same across every city in the country.

State surveillance °4/5
Facial recognition °5/5
No national ID2/5
Data-protection law5/5
Encryption4/5
VPN freedom5/5
Democracy5/5
Free expression4/5
Cash still works3/5
Financial privacy3/5
Crypto freedom °3/5
Easy to stay °3/5
Off-grid living °2/5
press rank #15 (Belgium) ~$1,900/mo, this city safety 4/5 geopolitical stability 5/5

Childhood vaccines: compulsory by law1 in total

Belgium makes exactly one vaccine compulsory, polio, by a royal decree of 1966, and recommends all the others.

If you skip them: For polio, a fine and, on the books, eight days to a month in jail. Nobody serves it.

Exemptions: Medical only.

Source: Vaccines 2024;12:1296, European survey

Legal & financial exposure

Facts about the law, not a privacy score: whether each one helps or hurts depends on what you are trying to do.

Reports your account balances abroad (CRS)

Extradition treaty with the US

Crypto gains tax-free after a holding period

Exempt as "normal management of private assets"; taxed at 33% if deemed speculative or professional.

4 of 7 signals are unverified for this country: not shown, rather than guessed.

See Antwerp against your own threat model

Filter thousands of real places across every country on the same signals, or open the full profile for Belgium.

Not just privacy?

Arcadia matches the same real places against how you actually want to live: weather, cost, healthcare, schools, internet.

Find where to live on Arcadia

City-level figures where marked °, national law otherwise. Estimates for orientation, not legal advice. Surveillance law changes fast: verify anything you would act on.