Demographic features of the population of Portugal include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. As of 2023, Portugal had an estimated population of 10,639,726 inhabitants. Its population density, at 115.4 PD/km2, is slightly higher than that of most EU countries, moderately surpassing the EU average of 105.4 PD/km2. However, the distribution of the population is widely uneven; the most densely populated areas are the Lisbon metropolitan area (which contains well above a quarter of the country's population), the metropolitan areas of Porto and the Atlantic coast, while other vast areas are very sparsely populated, like the plateaus of Alentejo, the Trás-os-Montes and Serra da Estrela highlands, and the lesser islands of the Azores archipelago. The population of the country almost doubled during the twentieth century (+91%), but the pattern of growth was extremely uneven due to large-scale internal migration from the rural North to the industrial cities of Lisbon and Porto, a phenomenon which happened as a consequence of the robust economic growth and structural modernisation, owing to a liberalisation of the economy of the 1960s. High fertility and birth rates persisted until the 1980s, after which they started to dramatically decline, leading to rapid population aging. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, almost one in five Portuguese was over 65 years old. Lately, Portugal has been experiencing a short growth in birth rates. The total fertility rate has climbed from an all-time low of 1.21 children per woman in 2013 to 1.43 in 2022, still well below replacement level. Due to decrease in emigration and increase in immigration in the late 1990s and early 2000s the total population reached its peak in December 2009, standing at 10,573,479. Since then, due to the 2008 financial crisis, immigration (that was- in some years - surpassed by emigration) could not offset a shrinking population size, mainly due to the low birthrate but, also due to aging, the rising mortality. After having decreased by 2.27% by 2018, the total population of Portugal started to grow again, mainly sustained by growing immigration and slightly increasing birth rates. By 2023, the total population had already surpassed the 2009 peak. Portugal is a fairly linguistically and religiously homogeneous country. Ethnically, the Portuguese people form a big majority of the total population in Portugal. The Portuguese people are mainly a combination of ancient paleolithic populations, and the proto-Celtic, Celtic and Iberian tribes, para-Celtic Lusitanians. Some other groups, like the Romans, Germanic (Visigoths, Suevi, Buri, Alans and Vandals) and later the Moorish (Arabs and Berber), Sephardic Jewish, and the French also passed through the country. Today, Brazilians, Britons, Indians, Italians, French, Ukrainians, Nepalis and countries members of PALOP (Portuguese-speaking African countries) are the main immigrants and form the major foreign communities in the country. Portuguese is spoken throughout the country, with only some villages near the northern municipality of Miranda do Douro speaking Mirandese, locally recognised as a co-official language.

Total fertility rate from 1850 to 1899

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.

Vital statistics since 1900

Current vital statistics

Structure of the population

Maps

Other demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the World Population Review. The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated. Source: UN World Population Prospects

Employment and income

Urban organization

Metropolitan areas and agglomerations

As of 2023, Portugal had two significant agglomerations: the political metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto – Grande Área Metropolitana de Lisboa (3.0 million) and Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto (1.8 million). Together they host 44.77% of the total population.

Largest urban areas

When considering the number of inhabitants in consistent single urban areas, de facto cities in mainland Portugal, per the new with increased density of human-created structures, and excluding suburban and rural areas, Portugal has two cities with about one million inhabitants each (Lisbon and Porto), ten others with more than 50,000 inhabitants and 14 cities with populations between 20,000 and 40,000 inhabitants.

Largest cities

Portugal has 151 localities with national city status (cidade). Every city is included into a municipality (município). This is a list of population by city, which means that it refers to the number of inhabitants in the city proper, excluding inhabitants from the same municipality but living outside the urban area of the city in other civil parishes (freguesias) of the municipality. In some cases (e.g. Lisbon), the entire municipality and the city proper cover the same territory.

[Population density of Portugal in 2021, per km2:

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Largest municipalities by population

The following table lists the largest Portuguese municipalities by population as of 2023. The land area is expressed in km2 and only municipalities with populations of over 100,000 inhabitants are listed. The 26 listed municipalities account for 46.10% of the country's population and for only 5.14% of its total land area.

People

Nationality

Immigration

In 1992, 1.3% of the population was foreign, by 2023 the number had grown to almost 10% or 1,044,606 people. Since the independence of the former African colonies, Portugal saw a steady immigration from Africa, most notably Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau, but also São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique and former Portuguese India in Asia. Portugal saw migration waves due to labor shortages since 1999, first from Eastern Europe (1999–2002), in two distinctive groups, a Slav (Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria) and an East Latin (Romania and Moldova), that stopped and started declining as the labour market became saturated. Since 2003, most of the immigrants came from Brazil, China and the Indian subcontinent. Family reunification was seen as important for a successful integration in the country, thus the government eased it, and in 2006, more than 6 in 10 new immigrants were family members of legal foreign residents in the country. There is also a significant number of elderly Western European residents in search of quality of life, namely from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. More recently, there is significant migration from the former Portuguese colony of Brazil, as since 2017 more than 30,000 Brazilians immigrate to Portugal annually. Below is a summary table of the main foreign nationalities present in Portugal according to the latest AIMA data. As of December 31, 2023, there were 1,044,606 legally resident people in Portugal with foreign citizenship (about 9.82% of the population). These include both citizens born in Portugal with foreign citizenship and foreign immigrants. Descendants of immigrants are excluded (Portugal, like many European countries, does not collect data on ethnicity) and those who, regardless of place of birth or citizenship at birth, were Portuguese citizens (see also Portuguese nationality law). Among the latter are also naturalized citizens whose data are reported in the next table. Below is a summary table of Portuguese citizenship acquisitions by foreigners residing in the country recorded between 2008 and 2022 for countries having recorded at least 1,000 naturalizations during the given timespan. During this period, 342,458 people (3.27% of the current Portuguese population) obtained Portuguese citizenship according to the latest Eurostat data. These people are not counted among foreigners (see above table) as they are Portuguese citizens in all respects.

Net migration

Ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities

Portugal does not collect ethnicity or racial data of its population. Anti-racism laws prohibit and penalize racial discrimination in housing, business, and health services. Discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of other state services is illegal. The law mandates access to public buildings and to newly built private buildings for such persons.

Languages

The main language spoken as first language by the overwhelming majority of the population is Portuguese. Other autochthonous languages spoken include:

Religion

The great majority of the Portuguese population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Religious observance remains strong in northern areas, while the population of Lisbon and southern areas are generally less devout. Religious minorities include a little over 400,000 Protestants and Mormons (3.84% of the total population). There are also about 100,000 Muslims (1%) and 45,000 Hindus (0.43%), most of whom came from Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India (Some Muslims also came from former two Portuguese African colonies with important Muslim minorities: Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique). There are also about 1,500 Jews, 2,000 Baha'i and 35,000 Sikh (0.34%) Portugal is also home to about 17,000 Buddhists, mostly Chinese from Macau and a few Indians from Goa. Portugal is still one of the most religious countries in Europe, most Portuguese believe with certainty in the Existence of God and religion plays an important role in the life of most Portuguese. According to the Pew Research Center, 40% of Portuguese Catholics pray daily.

Religious map of Portuguese municipalities

Religion by municipality according with the 2021 Census.

Education

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2021 official INE estimate)