51.0534° N, 3.7250° E
GENT
Most Famous People Born in Gent, Belgium
- Notable people
- 850
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1897
- Most distinctive
- Rower 9.6×
Charles V's birthplace and a Flemish Primitive stronghold — the Painter bench tracks Van Eyck's altarpiece and the long wake of Hugo van der Goes and Théo van Rysselberghe. The real oddity is a Rower cohort wildly out of proportion to anything else (thank the Watersportbaan) sitting next to a Conductor line that runs from Jacob Obrecht straight through Herreweghe's early-music revival.
One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Gent during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 64 notable births.
What Gent Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Gent's biggest profession — 17% of all notables (146).
Gent over-indexes on rower — 9.6× the global rate.
Gent under-produces actor — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Gent's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Art & Design
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1750s Clear ×
Marie Schellinck
1757 - 1840
Pieter Verheyen
1750 - 1819
Martin-Jean de Bast
1753 - 1825
Jean-Baptiste d'Hane-Steenhuyse
1757 - 1826
Joseph-Sébastien-Ghislain della Faille d'Assenede
1756 - 1830
Pierre-George de Meulenaëre
1751 - 1825