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 1790s Clear ×
Adolphe Quetelet
1796 - 1874
Joseph Guislain
1797 - 1860
Félix-Victor Goethals
1799 - 1872
Jodocus Sebastiaen van den Abeele
1797 - 1855
Jan Baptist Lodewyck Maes
1794 - 1856
Constantin d'Hane-Steenhuyse
1790 - 1850
Joseph-Jean De Smet
1794 - 1877
Auguste Van Lokeren
1799 - 1872
Hippolyte Metdepenningen
1799 - 1881
Charles Surmont de Volsberghe
1798 - 1840
Jean-Baptiste Minne-Barth
1796 - 1851
Pierre de Ryckere
1793 - 1863
Joseph-Pierre Braemt
1796 - 1864
Aldephonse du Jardin
1796 - 1870
Angelus de Baets
1793 - 1855
Constant de Kerchove de Denterghem
1790 - 1865
Hippolyte della Faille
1799 - 1875
Adolphe della Faille
1798 - 1873
Ferdinand d'Hoop
1798 - 1866
Charles de Rodes
1790 - 1868
François Rodriguez d'Evora y Vega
1790 - 1840
Aloysius Bourgois
1796 - 1874
Édouard Emmanuel Grenier
1795 - 1870