11.4 million people reside in Portugal: 1.6 million are foreigners

The resident population in 2025 was estimated at 11,424,031 people, representing an increase of 36,809 people compared to 2024.
Residents in Portugal
Louis Droege on Unsplash
Lusa
Lusa

Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE) has updated the number of residents in Portugal to over 11.4 million people, following the inclusion of 1,597,539 foreign nationals.

According to the 2025 resident population estimates, presented on 22 June 2026 and including revisions to figures for the period between 2021 and 2024, as of 31 December 2025 the population in Portugal stands at 11,424,031. This is higher than the figures presented last year for 2024 (10,749,635), which have also now been revised to 11,387,222.

In 2024, instead of the 1.6 million foreign residents, the INE had counted only 177,557 people.

According to the statement now released by the INE, the resident population in Portugal in 2025 “was estimated at 11,424,031 people, which corresponds to an increase of 36,809 people compared to 2024 (0.32%).”

Population in Portugal
INE

According to the INE, previously published data have been updated, concluding that “between 2021 and 2025, the resident population increased by 824,914 people. The years 2022, 2023 and 2024 stood out, during which exceptionally high migration flows were recorded, resulting in population increases” of 330,000, 275,000 and 183,000 people, respectively.

On the other hand, “demographic ageing in Portugal continued to intensify, although mitigated by the relative strengthening of the working-age population,”. In 2025, the ageing index reached nearly double the number of elderly people compared to young people, at “19 elderly people for every 10 young people,” whereas in 2021 the figure was 18 per 10.

The median age of the resident population in Portugal has fallen slightly to 45.8 years, compared with 46.1 in 2021, the date of the most recent census, indicating a slight rejuvenation.

“The resident population of foreign nationality, as of 31 December 2025, was estimated at 1,597,539 people, representing 14.0% of the total resident population,” and since 2021 “has more than doubled, corresponding to an increase of 849,384 people (plus 6.9 percentage points),” the INE also states.

The latest data from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), released in October last year, indicated that by the end of December 2024 there were 1,543,697 foreign citizens registered as living in the country, below the estimates made in April.

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