In 2025, 155,000 more people moved to Portugal than left: 1.4% of the population, joint highest in the EU with Cyprus
In 2025, 155,000 more people moved to Portugal than left it. That is 1.4% of the country's population, the same as in Cyprus and more than in any other EU country; the EU average is 0.5%. The figures come from the Ageing Report 2027, a population ageing forecast prepared by the European Commission and the EU's Economic Policy Committee. Every three years, the European Commission uses these forecasts to work out how much pensions, healthcare and care for the elderly will cost each country (ECO).
At the same time, the same report projects that by 2080 only 48% of Portugal's residents will be of working age, the lowest share of any EU country.
Many people also leave Portugal: according to a new count by INE, more than 782,000 people left the country in 2021–2025, including almost 180,000 in 2025, more than half of them foreigners. Read more in our article "782,000 people left Portugal in five years, INE's new count shows. In 2025 more than half of those who left were foreigners".
