Abstract Background Children are susceptible to the food environment. This research assessed changes in retail food environments near schools in Flanders between 2008 and 2020 and associations with children’s and adolescents’ weight status. Methods The food environment within a 500 m and 1000 m road network distance to all primary and secondary schools was mapped using spatial indicators. The commercial Locatus database, including addresses of all food retailers in Flanders, was used to calculate the density of different types of food retailers near the school perimeter, the percentage of schools with at least one food retailer of a certain type near the school perimeter and the shortest distance from the school entrance to the nearest food retailer of a certain type. A generalized linear model was used to explore associations between these indicators and the percentage of children and adolescents with overweight at the school level. Results Food environments near schools in Flanders were found to be ...