The RSSB was founded on March 10, 1937 in Brussels as Société Belge de Statistique (association sans but lucratif). Its nineteen founding members were leading Belgian personalities from government, academia, industrial sectors, the army, and the church.
The first president of the Society was A. Julin who was at the same time president of the International Statistical Institute. At the beginning the number of “titulaires” (recognised members) was limited to 75 and the number of honorary members to 10. This constraint was cancelled in 1947, and the Society grew very quickly. In 1965, under the presidency of R. Dereymaeker, the society officialised also its Dutch name Belgische Vereniging voor Statistiek.
In the mid-1970s and 1980s the activities of members of the Society followed a general tendency to internationality in academia and were more visible in the United States and other countries than in Belgium itself. Following suggestions of P. Dagnelie and J.J. Droesbeke, and combined efforts of M. Hallin and J. Beirlant, this changed in the early 1990s under the consecutive presidents J. Teugels and M. Hallin who revived the Society’s character of a primarily National Society.
In 2017, under the presidency of T. Bruss, the Society received royal favor of King Philippe of Belgium, and the Society became the Royal Statistical Society of Belgium (RSSB). Its official names in the national languages French and Dutch are now “Société Royale Belge de Statistique (SRBS)” and “Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Statistiek (KBVS)”, respectively.