Last year, police in Belgium caught 2,245 minors driving without a license, compared to 1,860 in 2024 and 1,612 in 2023. This was reported by the newspaper La Capitale. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures fluctuated between 987 and 1,182.
According to the Walloon Road Safety Agency (AWSR), the alarming figures do not necessarily reflect a sharp rise in a specific trend among young people. The number of recorded violations involving drivers without a valid license is increasing across all age groups.
In addition to increasing laxity, the phenomenon is also attributed to the influence of social media, while the police are simply conducting more checks.
Alarming trend
With reference to this increase across all age groups, the number of violations involving drivers without a valid license also rose among 18- to 24-year-olds, for example, from 6,481 in 2023 to 7,114 in 2025. The same applies to those aged 24 and older, whose number rose from 13,936 in 2023 to 16,086 in 2025.
In the first nine months of last year, police checked approximately 210,000 driver’s licenses during traffic stops. In nearly 25,000 cases, the driver was found to be driving with a suspended license, averaging 91 violations per day. In 2023, the average was 64 violations per day, which was the highest figure on record at the time.
Severe penalties and heavy fines
More checks – in 2024, 33,000 driver’s licenses were checked monthly, compared to 22,000 a few years earlier – do not fully explain these alarming figures. The police also note increasing laxity and the normalization of risk, whether due to social media.
Anyone caught without a valid driver’s license may face a prison sentence of 8 days to 2 years and/or a fine of 2,000 to 20,000 euros. The judge may also impose a driving ban of up to 5 years. For a driver whose license has been temporarily revoked, the prison sentence ranges from 3 months to 2 years. The fine also ranges from 2,000 to 20,000 euros. In this case, the driving ban may be permanent.
And for a driver who has continued to drive despite a court-imposed driving ban, the fine starts at 5,000 euros instead of 2,000 euros.
The 18-year-old age limit for a driver’s license is not arbitrary. Young people aged 16 to 17, and certainly young men, often have difficulty assessing risk. The number of accidents involving minors also rises sharply starting at age 16.
Another paradoxical phenomenon is that young people are getting their driver’s licenses later. Not everyone starts driver’s education at age 18 anymore; instead, they are increasingly postponing it until later. The higher cost and long wait times at the driver’s exam center may be contributing factors here.
