Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Unaudited) - USD ($) shares in Thousands, $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
	Apr. 03, 2022	Apr. 04, 2021
Income Statement [Abstract]
Revenues	$ 610,371	$ 508,683
Cost of sales	(401,511)	(339,500)
Gross profit	208,860	169,183
Selling, general and administrative expenses	(103,066)	(80,635)
Research and development expenses	(23,456)	(22,612)
Amortization of intangibles	(8,817)	(7,993)
Asset impairments	0	(6,995)
Operating income	73,521	50,948
Interest expense, net	(14,411)	(15,511)
Loss on debt extinguishment	(6,392)	0
Non-operating pension benefit	1,200	684
Income from continuing operations before taxes	53,918	36,121
Income tax expense	(9,822)	(7,056)
Income from continuing operations	44,096	29,065
Loss from discontinued operations, net of tax	(3,685)	(324)
Loss on disposal of discontinued operations, net of tax	(4,567)	0
Net income	35,844	28,741
Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest	3	75
Net income attributable to Belden stockholders	$ 35,841	$ 28,666
Weighted average number of common shares and equivalents:
Basic (in shares)	44,811	44,679
Diluted (in shares)	45,567	45,045
Basic income (loss) per share attributable to Belden stockholders:
Continuing operations (in dollars per share)	$ 0.98	$ 0.65
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	(0.08)	(0.01)
Disposal of discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	(0.10)	0
Net income (in dollars per share)	0.80	0.64
Diluted income (loss) per share attributable to Belden stockholders:
Continuing operation (in dollars per share)	0.97	0.64
Discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	(0.08)	(0.01)
Disposal of discontinued operations (in dollars per share)	(0.10)	0
Net income (in dollars per share)	$ 0.79	$ 0.64
Comprehensive income attributable to Belden	$ 39,769	$ 82,391
Common stock dividends declared per share (in dollars per share)	$ 0.05	$ 0.05