 With 262,219 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019, Ghent is Belgium's second largest municipality by number of inhabitants.The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and has a total population of 560,522 as of 1 January 2018, which ranks it as the fourth most populous in Belgium.The current mayor of Ghent, Mathias De Clercq is from the liberal & democratic party Open VLD.