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
- Field: Lawyer Clear ×
Victor D'Hondt
1841 - 1901
Matthias Storme
Born 1959
Paul Struye
1896 - 1974
Jules Van den Heuvel
1854 - 1926
Marc Bossuyt
Born 1944
Joke Schauvliege
Born 1970
Edouard Rolin-Jaequemyns
1863 - 1936
Güler Turan
Born 1975
Alfons Jonckx
1872 - 1953
Jean-Baptiste Camberlyn
1772 - 1834
Sas van Rouveroij
Born 1957
Hippolyte Metdepenningen
1799 - 1881
Théodore Léger
1826 - 1912
Maurice van der Bruggen
1852 - 1919
Jean-Baptiste Minne-Barth
1796 - 1851
Pierre de Ryckere
1793 - 1863
Roger Kervyn de Marcke ten Driessche
1896 - 1965
Alfred Claeys-Boúúaert
1844 - 1936
Patrick Lachaert
1948 - 2012
Carlos De Baeck
1906 - 1993
Paul Terlinden
1858 - 1935
Léonce Lagae
1894 - 1964
Frédéric Vergauwen
1874 - 1919
Ferdinand d'Hoop
1798 - 1866
Janine Ghobert
Born 1931
Robert Petitjean
1887 - 1951
Théophile Libbrecht
1829 - 1907