Portugal is an amazing place to go for expats. The climate is warm, Portugal has the most sun hours of all European countries. Portugal is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, making that the country has a shoreline from the North-West above Porto, all the way down to the Algarve. Even when you happen to stay in the Lisbon area, the capital of Portugal, you will be surrounded by many beaches. So what are the numbers driving this country?

Demograpics of Portugal

Over the last decade the population in Portugal has been in decline. Between 2009 and 2018 the population of residents has fallen by nearly 300.000 people, with 2013 standing out with a decline of 60.000 people. This is due to a negative natural, i.e. there are more people dying than being born (in fact: Portugal has one of the lowest birth rates in the EU, standing at 8.5% in 2018.) and a migration balance where residents move toward others counties. The negative trend is fading though and since 2017 Portugal has seen a net migration that turned positive, coinciding with the consolidation of the economic recovery Portugal has been through after the financial crisis of 2008 and the European debt crisis of 2012 – 2014.

The natural balance on the other hand has been negative since 2009. This is due to the ageing population and a low birthrate in the country. In the graph below is shown how the Portuguese population is suffering from the “double demographic ageing”. This is due to the fact that the average life expectancy is rising, the widening at the top of the pyramid, and the low birthrate is seen as the narrow bottom of the pyramid. In total, Portugal has over 21.8%  people in their population with an age of over 65, while in 1991, this proportion was only 14%.

According to the United Nations, the current life expectancy for Portugal in 2020 is 82.11 years, a 0.22% increase from 2019. They have projected that if the life expectancy continues to rise in the current trajectory, the Portuguese people to reach 90 years of age in 2100. Which is an astonishing 50% increase in age, compared to the life expectancy in the 50s of the previous century. The historic numbers, and future projections have been visualized in the graph below.