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Research · Demographics

Portugal Total Population (2026 Data)

The full demographic ledger: the record 10.75 million, six decades of births and ageing, cities, regions, immigration and the official 2100 outlook.

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  • Updated
  • 7 sources
  • 31 statistics
  • 9 min read

Key findings

  1. 10,749,635Portugal's population reached 10,749,635 people on 1 January 2025, a record set almost entirely by immigration.
  2. 47.3 yearsPortugal's median age is 47.3 years in 2025, among the highest of any country in the world.
  3. 1.41Portugal's total fertility rate was 1.41 children per woman in 2024, far below the 2.1 replacement level.
  4. 87,764Portugal recorded 87,764 live births in 2025, barely a third of the 1960s annual peak.
  5. 2.6 millionPortugal's 65-plus population totals 2.6 million people (2,612,062), roughly 24.3% of the country.
  6. 1.54 millionPortugal hosted 1.54 million foreign residents in 2024, the wave powering the population record.
  7. -2.4 millionINE's official projection is -2.4 million residents by 2100, taking Portugal to about 8.3 million people.

What is the total population of Portugal? Eurostat's official count answers with a record: 10,749,635 people on 1 January 2025 - the largest Portugal has ever been1. The record population is not a baby boom - it is an immigration wave, 1.54 million foreign residents strong, stacked on top of one of the fastest-ageing societies in the world231. The series is really three different curves stacked: a native population that peaked around 1990 and has shrunk since, a diaspora-and-return cycle that masked the 2000s, and the post-2016 immigration inflow that broke the ceiling14.

INE's official projection looks through the boom: the base scenario sees about 2.4 million residents gone by 2100, with the working-age core falling from 6.8 million to 4.2 million3line5(official)1. Nascimentos Portugal 2024 total, asked in Portuguese, gives 89,831 for the previous year - the series hovers at a sixty-year floor1.

The deepest layer is the total fertility rate of Portugal: 1.41 children per woman in 2024, a level Portugal has held near for two decades - it last touched replacement level (2.1) in the early 1980s1recoveries5labelled)4.

The wealth map follows the same geography: Henley & Partners counted 62,700 resident millionaires in Portugal at the end of 2023 - including 108 with over USD 100 million - but does not publish a millionaire population Portugal by city breakdown; the millionaire question resolves to the national number plus the observable concentration in Lisbon and Porto estates6.

Why the city-proper numbers mislead, and how to read them: Lisbon's municipality holds 545,796 people, but its metropolitan area stacks eight more municipalities - Gaia is Porto's, not Lisbon's, but Amadora, Almada and Setubal all function as Lisbon bedroom communities. Add them and the functional Lisbon urban region passes 2.9 million (the NUTS2 figure), with Porto's metropolitan ring around 1.7 million1totals57. In practice the illiteracy rate is falling out of the statistics with each generational cohort.

What is the divorce rate of Portugal? The crude divorce rate runs near its series high - more than 2 divorces per 1,000 people a year in recent readings, among Europe's higher rates - after the 1975 divorce law and its 2008 liberalisation rewrote the curve5labelled)4(official)12. This is the engine behind the record: natural change (births minus deaths) has been negative since 2007, so every population gain in the series since then is migration521row7625.

  • Portugal is ageing faster than almost anywhere: median age 47.3, up 21 years since 1960, with 65-plus now 24.3% of the country - a quarter of the nation1.
  • The birth arithmetic is locked in: 87,764 births and a 1.41 fertility rate mean each generation is two-thirds the size of its parents - no immigration-neutral future exists at these levels1.
  • The geography is two countries: the Atlantic metro pairs (Lisbon-Setubal, Porto-Gaia) hold most of the people while the Alentejo runs half the Algarve's population over a much larger area1.
  • The official 2100 outlook (-2.4 million, working-age down to 4.2 million) makes immigration the only variable that has historically moved the total - every decade in the series where migration turned positive, the population followed it, not the births[[2400000|ine]]5.

    • Methodology

    • National series 1960-2025 (population, births, median age, crude rates); fertility to 2024; divorce rate to 2024
    • Regional data: NUTS2 2023/2024 (Eurostat regional series)
    • City figures: 2021 census

    Definition. Population figures are Eurostat's 'population on 1 January' for Portugal; the census anchor is INE's 2021 Census. Crude rates divide events by the total population per 1,000. Median age is the age that splits the population in half. The total fertility rate is the average children per woman implied by age-specific rates.

    Data sources. ['Eurostat demo_pjan, demo_pjanind, demo_gind, demo_find, demo_r_pjangrp3 - OFFICIAL, fetched by work/fetch_eurostat.py', 'INE projected resident population 2025-2100 (July 2025) - OFFICIAL, relayed', "AIMA/INE immigration statistics via the site's visa page - OFFICIAL relay, labelled", 'INE Census 2021 city figures via Wikipedia - ENC relay, labelled', 'World Bank literacy (2021) - OFFICIAL relay; Henley & Partners wealth report - INDUSTRY, labelled']

    Calculations. ['Age-band shares, gender split, density (10,749,635 / 92,212 km2) - our arithmetic', 'Crude divorce rate: divorces / population x 1,000', "Chart projections: renderer least-squares straight lines - arithmetic, not forecasts; INE's official projection is presented separately as the outlook"]

    Limitations. ['Eurostat and INE revise recent years; reference dates stated per figure', 'City figures are city-proper, not metro areas - the difference is stated in the text', 'Regional map groups districts into their NUTS2 regions; the grouping matches other site maps', 'Wealth figures are industry estimates with no official Portuguese statistics behind them']

    Sources

    1. Eurostat. “demo_pjan (population on 1 January), demo_pjanind (median age), demo_gind (births, crude rates), demo_find (total fertility rate), demo_r_pjangrp3 (regional population).” European Commission - Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    2. AIMA / INE (via the site's visa page). “1.54 million foreign residents (2024); 386,463 residence permits issued (2025).” AIMA; INE (OFFICIAL relay), 2025. porto.tours. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    3. INE - Statistics Portugal. “Projected resident population 2025-2100 (July 2025 release): about -2.4 million by 2100; working-age 6.8M to 4.2M.” INE (OFFICIAL, relayed by DN/Forbes Portugal), 2025. ine.pt. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    4. INE Census 2021 (via Wikipedia Demographics of Portugal). “City populations, 2021 census: Lisbon 545,796; Porto 231,800; Vila Nova de Gaia 188,421; Amadora 174,454; Braga 146,543; Coimbra 106,655; Funchal 105,590; Setubal 98,470; Almada 95,851.” INE via Wikipedia (ENC relay, labelled), 2021. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    5. Porto.tours research. “Our calculations: density (Eurostat population / 92,212 km2), age-band shares, chart projections are renderer least-squares lines - arithmetic, not forecasts.” porto.tours, 2026. porto.tours. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    6. Henley & Partners. “Centi-Millionaire Report 2024: 62,700 resident millionaires in Portugal (Dec 2023), incl. 108 centi-millionaires.” Henley & Partners (INDUSTRY, labelled), 2024. henleyglobal.com. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    7. World Bank (via TradingEconomics relay). “Adult literacy rate, Portugal: 96.78% (2021).” World Bank (OFFICIAL, relayed), 2021. tradingeconomics.com. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text

    About the author

    Tiago Santos
    Tiago Santos
    Travel Advisor & Porto City Guide Author

    Tiago Santos is a born-and-bred Tripeiro with nearly a decade chronicling Porto's shifting culinary and cultural landscape - from back-alley petisqueiras to contemporary architecture. A former contributor to Publico's Fugas supplement and Revista Visao, for this guide he turns official statistics and street-level knowledge into research visitors can check and cite.

    Mariana Gomes
    Reviewed by
    Mariana Gomes
    Editor-in-Chief, Porto Tours

    Every figure on this page links to its source. How we research

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