Immigration to Portugal

Legal foreign
residents in Portugal

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1974	32,057	—
1980	50,750	+7.96%
1985	79,594	+9.42%
1990	107,767	+6.25%
1995	168,316	+9.33%
2000	207,587	+4.28%
2005	274,631	+5.76%
2010	443,055	+10.04%
2015	383,759	−2.83%
2020	666,374	+11.67%
2022	994,011	+22.13%
2023	1,293,463	+30.13%
2024	1,546,521	+19.56%
Source:[1][2][3][4][5][6]

As of December 2022, Portugal had 1,733,067 inhabitants who were born in a foreign country, out of 10,516,621 inhabitants, accounting for 16.48% of its total population.^[7][8] This figure also include Portuguese nationals born abroad.

In 2023, AIMA reported that, of the 1,044,606 foreign residents believed to be living in Portugal, 553,801 identified as male (53%), and 490,437 as female (47%).^[9] 63.5% of foreign citizens lived in Lisbon, Faro or Setúbal districts: these districts account for 35.2% of the country's population.^[10]

As of December 2023, foreign citizens' origins were subdivided as follows: America (38.9%), Europe (26.5%), Asia (16.1%), Africa (18.4%) and Oceania (0.1%).^[11] Major groups of immigrants to Portugal include Brazilians, Angolans, Cape Verdeans, Britons, Indians, Bissau-Guineans, Nepalis, Chinese, São Toméans, Bangladeshis, Ukrainians, Romanians, Pakistanis, Americans, Russians, Venezuelans, Mozambicans and Moldovans. Brazilians made up the largest foreign community in the country (368,449), followed by Angolans (55,589) and Cape Verdeans (48,885).^[9]

The share of children born in Portugal to foreign resident mothers stood at 21.9% in 2023.^[12][13][14] The share of children born from foreign-born mothers reached 25% in 2022.^[15]

Due to population ageing, immigration is the only factor that has made the Portuguese population grow in recent years. Foreigners in Portugal have higher activity rates than nationals, as per the 2022 Annual Statistical Report of the Observatory.^{[16][17][18][19][20]} Immigrants have been proved to be particularly vital to sectors of the Portuguese economy employing few Portuguese nationals, mainly due to the wages being low such as tourism industry,^[21][22] fishery,^[23] agriculture,^[24] catering^[25] and civil construction.^[26]

Portugal, for long a country of emigration, has become a meeting country of net immigration, and not just from the last Portuguese overseas territories in India (until 1961), Africa (until 1975), and Far East Asia (until 1999).

India annexed the Portuguese-ruled Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954 and integrated Daman and Diu and Goa in 1961, bringing an end to Portuguese colonial rule in India. In 1961, the newly independent state of Benin expelled the small Portuguese garrison that was stationed at the Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá, located in the town of Ouidah, which was historically significant as a center of Portuguese trade and influence in West Africa.

Following these events, a significant number of people, particularly white Portuguese settlers and people of mixed Portuguese descent, began migrating to Portugal. Many came from India and settled in Portugal, traveled via Karachi, a city hosting an important Goan community. In addition to civilians, the migration included approximately 3,500 Portuguese military officers, who also sought to resettle in Portugal in the aftermath of the decolonization process. In the first two weeks following the annexation of Goa, around 1,000 people moved to Portugal by air or by boat.^{[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]}

According to a 2017 estimate by Casa de Goa, the association of Goans in Portugal, there were approximately 20,000 people of Goan descent living in the European country. However, other estimates suggest that the community may comprise as many as 50,000 individuals.^[36][37][38] The overwhelming majority of Goan-Portuguese people speak Portuguese as their native language and are Catholic, thus facilitating the integration process that predominantly took place in the 1960s and 1970s, following the Indian annexation of Goa.^[39][40][41]

Despite being just a fraction (about 16%) of the total number of Indians in Portugal, Goans are known for being fairly well-integrated. As early as the 19th century, there were Goan Members of Parliament (e.g. Francisco Gomes), and by 1958 there were 23 university professors and 19 politicians of Goan descent. Of the 14 Prime Ministers in Portuguese democratic history, 2 have been of Goan descent: Alfredo Nobre da Costa and António Costa.^[42][43][44] Unlike the community in the United Kingdom, Goans in Portugal are mainly of upper class extraction and are highly qualified professionals. Later, they were joined by migrants of Goan descent from the African colonies, especially Mozambique.^{[45][46][47][48][49][50]}

On the other hand, Gujarati speakers from Daman and Diu tend to show lower level of integration, with a large community found in Marvila, Lisbon.^[51][52]

In the late 1960s, Portugal also saw a small influx of people of Portuguese descent relocating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.^[53]

A major immigrant influx and—to date, the largest process of immigration in Portuguese history—was recorded starting in 1974, when over a million Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Angola and Mozambique) migrated to Portugal.^[54] They are known and are still referred as retornados (meaning "those who came back") — Portuguese settlers and descendants of Portuguese (or other European such as Germans or Italians) settlers born in former African colonies who relocated to Portugal after their independence and in the first half of the 1980s. Due to the Portuguese colonization, white and mestiço people were frowned upon; in many cases, white Luso-Africans experienced racist incidents. In particular, due to the outbreak of the Angolan Civil War, Portuguese in Angola left en masse, often having to leave all of their possessions behind and being allowed to exit the country with only 15,000 escudos to start a new life (approx. €2,870 in 2023). Of those leaving Mozambique, many of the retornados were part of the Indian community in addition to white and black.^{[55][56][57][58][59][60]} In 2021, there were still 240,499 retornados alive who were residing in Portugal and who had fled Africa in the 1970s.^[61]

In the second half of the 1980s, immigration towards Portugal by people of African descent became visible, especially because of the Portuguese economic growth and the worsening of the conditions in Angola and Mozambique due to the respective civil wars that were fought in the two countries. One of the primary settlement areas for Black communities in Portugal, especially the Cape Verdean one, were the lands north of Lisbon, near the present-day parish of Benfica and the present-day municipalities of Amadora and Odivelas. Starting from the 1970s, numerous clandestine neighborhoods (bairros clandestinos) emerged here, often lacking basic services and plagued by crime-related issues.^[62] From 1993 onwards, with Portugal's slum eradication program, many people have been provided with alternative public housing and, despite the initial discrimination, many have nowadays found success.^[63][64][65]

Immigration to Portugal increased after the country's accession to the EU in 1986 and soared significantly starting in the late 1990s, also under form of human trafficking.^[66][67]

After Macau was returned to China in 1999, many Macanese moved to Portugal. According to a 1991 survey, 70% of Macanese were planning to move elsewhere, with 63.5% of these planning to move to Portugal. In 1991, there were already 500 Macanese families living in Lisbon.^{[68][69][70][71]}

Ukrainian migration to Portugal started in the late 1990s, and experienced significant growth in the early 2000s. Initially, immigrants arrived through both organized and illegal channels, often with Schengen visas. While some initially intended short stays, many chose long-term residence, establishing families and pursuing the recognition of their qualifications for access to higher-paying jobs.^[72][73][74]

In 2007, the country hosted around 435,000 foreign residents,^[75] excluding naturalised citizens and people of foreign descent. From 1998 to 2006, around 21,000 people were granted Portuguese citizenship, with more than 60% of those becoming Portuguese hailing from Africa, and in particular from Portuguese speaking African countries.^[76]

Immigration to Portugal decreased significantly after the dire consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. At the same time, emigration of both Portuguese and foreign nationals increased.

Between 2008 and 2013 unemployment rate in Portugal rose from 7.6% to 17.1%^[77] and 2013 GDP was 7.60% lower than the value recorded for 2007 GDP.^[78] Moreover, between 2007 and 2013 there was a 10.35% inflation rate, meaning that the Purchasing power of Portuguese families decreased significantly.^[79] From 2008 to 2013, around 412,000 people left the country (51.2% did so permanently).^[80] Of those who left the country 5.47% (22,547 people) were foreigners and 65.3% of the foreigners doing so left the country permanently. This means that 3.9% of the 2008 population left the country in just 6 years.

Portugal reached its historical population peak – up until 2023^[81] – in 2009 when 10,573,479 people lived in the country: this value decreased to 10,395,121 people (−1.7%) at the end of 2013, due to the combined effect of increased emigration, decreasing immigration and population ageing.^[82] Only 140,845 people immigrated to Portugal between 2008 and 2013 meaning that the country experienced a net migration loss of around −271,000. In particular, in 2012 less than 15,000 immigrants permanently settled in Portugal.^[83]

As for the Ukrainian community, for instance, which in 2007 was the second largest foreign community in the country, declining investment in public projects and improved immigration control prompted many Ukrainians to leave.^[84]

With the easing of the economic crisis and an increase in tourism and industrial production, immigration increased again after 2013.

Following the recovery of the Portuguese economy starting in 2014, immigration to Portugal increased once again. From 2014 to 2019, emigration decreased by 42.8% while immigration increased by 413%.^[83]

Between 2013 and 2019, the unemployment rate in Portugal fell from 17.1% to 6.6%,^[77] and the 2019 GDP was 14.35% higher than the value recorded for 2013 GDP. The value recorded for 2019 GDP was 5.71% higher than the one recorded in 2007: Portugal officially recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and the troika austerity measures in 2017.^[78] Moreover, between 2014 and 2019, the increase in prices was modest (the country recorded a 3.54% inflation rate), meaning that the Purchasing power of Portuguese families increased significantly.^[79]

During these years, almost 573,000 people left the country: despite Portugal's reputation as an economic success story since the 2008 financial crisis, many young, educated workers are still more attracted by significantly higher wages in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland or Germany.^[85] On the other hand, the share of those leaving permanently fell to 38.4%, meaning that high-skilled workers are, after 2013, more willing to come back to Portugal after having acquired some years of experience, typically in Northern European countries.^[80] As a measure to reverse skill-drain, population decrease, and ageing, the government has since created new measures to attract Portuguese emigrants to return home.^[86]

Of those who left the country, 3.96% (22,685 people) were foreigners, but only 31.4% of them left the country permanently. This means that although 5.5% of the 2013 population left the country in 6 years (2014–2019), the majority of them - or 61.6% - did so temporarily, meaning for less than one year.^[82] After 2014, the country's population decline rate started to slow. The population still fell to 10,333,496 people in 2018 - equivalent to the country's population in January 2000 - but it was mostly due to population ageing. On the other hand, by the end of 2019, due to increasing immigration, Portugal's population had recovered the value recorded in 2014 (around 10,395,000).^[82]

Around 295,000 people immigrated permanently to Portugal between 2014 and 2019. In particular, 51.1% of those who settled in Portugal in this period did so between 2018 and 2019.^[83] The surge in immigration was due to the good economic conditions of the country, to the crisis in Brazil (the primary source of immigration in Portugal) and to numerous programs devised during the years of the 2008–2013 crisis aimed at attracting foreign capitals: these include the Non-habitual residency (NHR) taxation law (2009), the Portuguese Golden Visa law (2012), and the Sephardi Nationality Act (2015).

The Portuguese government has thus not only developed strategies aiming at calling back Portuguese emigrants but also at attracting foreign citizens.

It is with this goal that in 2009 was devised a program that has attracted foreigners, particularly since 2013: it is the special tributary regime that grants to certain categories of new residents a flat tax and protects them from double taxation (NHR).^[87] Many pensioners, especially from Northern European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Norway have taken advantage of the law and moved to Portugal. Due to increased pressure from the countries of origin of the retirees, as well as from the local Portuguese population (subject to a different taxation system), the program was drastically changed.^{[88][89][90][91][92]} Nevertheless, pensioners continue coming to Portugal thanks to the high quality of life, Mediterranean climate and sunny weather.

Another program is the Golden visa law, devised in 2012. It is an immigrant investor program by the government of Portugal that granted residency in Portugal to people who invested in properties worth at least €500,000 or created 10 jobs in Portugal.^[93] As of September 2023 the program has resulted in 33,142 residence permits granted, of which 38.4% to investors and 61.6% to their family members. 42.5% of the investors who have benefited from the program came from China, other significant countries include Brazil (9.88%), the US (6.14%), Turkey (4.82%) and South Africa (4.51%). Around 6.5 billion euros (€) were invested in the acquisition of 11,383 real estate properties (for a mean value of 566,754 €), but only 23 jobs were created.^[94] In addition, around 867 million euros (€) were transferred to Portugal.^[95] Due to the overwhelming majority of Golden visas being issued because of investments solely and exclusively dedicated to real estate and there being a very low investment in job creation and other activities adding value to the economy, the program has been cancelled in July 2023.^[96][97]

A last measure that has boosted immigration to Portugal has been the law aimed at the descendants of Portuguese Jews expelled in 1496. In 2015 the Portuguese parliament officially acknowledged the expulsion as unrightful. To try to make up for the past mistakes, the government passed a law known as "Law of Return".^[98] The law aims to right the historic wrongs of the Portuguese Inquisition, which resulted in the expulsion or forced conversion of thousands of Jews from Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries. The law grants citizenship to any descendants of those persecuted Jews who can prove their Sephardic Jewish ancestry and a "connection" to Portugal. It is intended to provide a measure of justice and recognition to those whose families suffered from discrimination and persecution centuries ago.^{[99][100][101][102]} Since 2015, more than 262,000 people from 60 countries (mostly from Israel or Turkey) applied to Portuguese citizenship in virtue of them being of Sephardic descent, of which 75,000 (or 28.63% of the applicants) were granted Portuguese passports.^{[103][104][105][106][107]} According to a 2023 estimate, there might be already 15,000 Portuguese-Israelis living in Portugal.^[108] Despite the good intentions of the law, some doubts arose over the legitimate attribution of Portuguese citizenship after it was revealed that people such as Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich were Portuguese – thus EU – citizens under the new law. Due to the controversies and the recent judicial investigations, the law will come to an end starting in December 2024.^{[109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116]}

Immigration to Portugal has steadily increased in recent years. At the beginning of 2020, there were 590,348 foreigners living in the country; their number increased to 662,095 at the end of 2020, to 698,887 at the end of 2021, and up to 781,915 at the end of 2022. This means that the relative incidence of foreigners has increased from 5.7% to 7.5% in just 3 years. From December 2019 to December 2022, the number of foreigners increased by 32.4%.

Some immigrant communities, like those that arrived from Africa and South America, are growing as a result of economic migration – foreigners looking for better economic conditions abroad. The outlook of the economy of Portugal is good, unemployment remains stable and in line with the rest of the EU. In fact, since 2018, Portugal has recorded a lower unemployment rate than that recorded in both the Eurozone and the EU as a whole. For instance, in 2022, the unemployment rate in Portugal stood at 6%, while for the EU and the Eurozone the recorded values were respectively 6.2% and 6.8%.^[77][120] In addition, despite suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic, the GDP recorded for 2022 was 3.22% higher than in 2019.^[78]

Other immigrant communities, like most of those arrived from other EU member states, are a result of the attractiveness of the country for high income foreign citizens looking for a better quality of life, a warmer sunny weather, security and exquisite cuisine.

From 2020 to 2022, around 205,909 people emigrated from Portugal, continuing the decrease in emigration recorded since 2014. This means that 2.0% of the 2019 population left the country in the last 3 years, but 60.2% did so temporarily, meaning for less than one year.^[82] Moreover, almost 300,000 people entered the country permanently since 2019, a sharp increase and the largest influx of immigrants ever recorded in Portugal since the 1980s.^[83]

Despite the surge in immigration, however, in 2023, Portugal was still the European Union country with the most emigrants in relative terms. In the last 20 years,15 per cent of the population emigrated. Portugal had the highest proportion of emigrants in Europe and ranked eighth globally in terms of the percentage of its population who migrated.^{[121][122][123]}

It is expected that the number of foreigners will further increase in the next few years: in early 2023, Portugal regularized around 113,000 CPLP citizens residing in the country.^[124][125] By September the number of Portuguese-speaking immigrants who have received an "authorization of residence," valid for one year and automatically renewed for those with clean criminal record, had reached 151,000 people, of whom 75% are Brazilians.^{[126][127][128][129]} In total, it was reported that in February 2023 around 300,000 foreigners who live in Portugal were still awaiting regularization due to SEF's inability to process them.^[130] By November of the same year, the number of those awaiting for regularization had soared to 700,000 people.^[131]

In July 2023 the Portuguese government sent abroad, for the first time, officials to recruit workers in India, Morocco, Timor-Leste and Cabo Verde.^[132]

The Portuguese government had introduced, since the 2008 financial crisis, several measures aimed at attracting foreign capital to the country. In particular, there have been the Non-habitual residency (NHR) taxation law (2009), the Portuguese Golden Visa law (2012), and the Sephardi Nationality Act (2015). Due to both international and internal pressure, but due to the economic recovery of the country in 2023, it was announced that all three programs would be phased out by the end of 2024.

The NHR, a scheme offering a flat tax and protection from double taxation for specific categories of new residents relocating to Portugal, underwent significant changes in 2020. This adjustment was prompted by an influx of pensioners, particularly from Nordic countries, who were moving to Portugal to take advantage of a fiscal regime that was deemed disadvantageous to their home countries. The Portuguese government has announced the end of the 10-year tax incentive regime for non-permanent residents, including digital nomads, in 2024. Prime Minister António Costa stated that the regime will persist for current beneficiaries. Costa argued that maintaining differentiated tax levels for non-permanent residents would perpetuate fiscal injustice and inflate the real estate market. As of July 2023, 89,000 foreigners were benefiting from the non-permanent resident tax regime.^{[133][134][135]} The Golden Visa program, initiated in 2012, was officially terminated in October 2023 due to the Mais Habitação program, and new applications are no longer being accepted. The decision to end the program, which was aimed at foreigners purchasing real estate, was influenced by the escalating housing prices. The new law doesn't impact renewals but marks the end of new permits for investment activities. The Mais Habitação program, which faced opposition but was approved in July, includes measures like rent caps and restrictions on property sales to non-residents, leading to public protests.^[136] There are still around 21,000 pending processes, of which around two-thirds deal with family reunification.^[137]

In 2023 it was also announced the end of the Law permitting people of Portuguese-Jewish descent to acquire Portuguese citizenship. Since 2013, around 262,000 people have requested to be naturalized as Portuguese citizens due to their Sephardi ancestry, with almost half being Israeli nationals. Of these, more than 75,000 have already acquired Portuguese citizenship. Since the announcement of the end of the law in 2023, around 74,000 people have started their application process.^{[138][139][140]} Amongst those who have acquired Portuguese citizenship there are 12 Israeli national football players.^[141]

Despite the end of the abovementioned programs, the number of foreign nationals living in Portugal has witnessed a significant increase during 2023: by September there were 980,000 foreigners living in Portugal.^[142] By December, the number had increased to a further 1,045,000 people, a 40% increase since January of the same year with 329,000 new residence permits given during 2023.^{[143][144][145]} Of the foreigners living in Portugal, 35% were Brazilians: taking into account also Luso-Brazilians nationals and Brazilians awaiting for regularization, there are 750,000 Brazilians estimated living in Portugal.^[146] The sharp increase in the number of foreign nationals has created a widespread debate in Portugal, with some people calling for a tightening of immigration procedures^[147] and others defending the importance of immigrants for the Portuguese economy.^[148][149]

It is estimated that in the 2024/2025 school year, amongst 83,134 pupils entering the Portuguese public schooling system, 10,297 will be foreign nationals, representing 12.4% of the total and an increase of 1,160 pupils from 2023/24.^[151] The increase in the number of foreigners was also recorded for the 2024/25 university applications received by Portuguese institutions by early 2024.^[152] In early 2025, it was announced that there were more than 140,000 foreign pupils enrolled in the Portuguese school system holding a foreign nationality.^[153] In was also revealed that more than 6,000 foreign nurses and doctors work in Portugal as of 2024.^[154]

Following the 2024 Portuguese legislative elections a new right-wing government was formed and, in June 2024, it decided to abolish residence permits based on declarations of interest, a system that previously allowed migrants to regularise their status without a visa. The PSD-CDS government argues this policy was misguided, contradicting Portugal’s Schengen commitments and leading to an exponential rise in residency requests, often exploited by human trafficking and illegal migration networks.

Since 2017, migrants could secure legal status by proving employment, even without a valid visa. A 2019 amendment further enabled regularisation for those with 12 months of social security contributions. The decree states these measures created a strong pull factor, encouraging irregular migration with false promises of legalisation. The new law revokes this mechanism while safeguarding migrants who have already applied. It also addresses issues linked to the slow dismantling of the Immigration and Borders Service (SEF) and the misallocation of resources. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa promptly ratified the decree, citing the urgent need to resolve thousands of pending residency applications.^[155][156]

The new government’s strategy formally ends the exceptional regime that enabled uncontrolled entry. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro described declarations of interest as an open door to abuse, vowing to curb policies that overstretched Portugal’s capacity to host migrants. Measures include bolstering consular processing in priority countries, transforming the current CPLP mobility visa into a Schengen visa, and creating a Foreigners and Borders Unit within the PSP to monitor migration. The plan also introduces emergency response centres for immigration cases.^[157]

Brazilians are the most prevalent foreign nationality. The 368,449 resident Brazilians represent 35.3% of the total foreign population.^[9] In addition to that, Brazilians also represent 40% of Italian passport holders living in Portugal.^[158] Other significant foreign communities (excluding naturalized citizens) are the ones from other countries of the Lusosphere. In 2023 there were 171,651 from the 6 PALOP countries (Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde), in addition to 1,199 people from Timor-Leste.^[9]

There is also a thriving community of people from the Indian subcontinent (chiefly Indians and Nepalis) adding up to 117,048 people.^[9]

Some EU citizens have also chosen Portugal as a destination, with the majority being part of the Italian, French, Romanian, German, or Spanish communities.^[9] These communities are mostly composed of persons looking for quality of life and include an increasing number of pensioners.

The listed figures only take into account foreign residents legally living in the country and exclude foreigners who have acquired Portuguese citizenship as well as dual citizens.

For instance, while according to Portuguese authorities, there were around 37,000 resident Cape Verdeans in the country, according to official Cape Verdean figures, the number of Cape Verdeans in Portugal could be as high as 260,000.^[159][160] The discrepancy could be because since 2008 around 55,000 Cape Verdeans have naturalised as Portuguese, that kids of foreign citizens legally living in Portugal acquire Portuguese citizenship at birth and lastly that the overwhelming majority of the community are by now second or third generation immigrants.^[161][162]

N°	Country of citizenship	Number of foreign citizens in 2023[9]
1	Brazil	368,449
2	Angola	55,589
3	Cape Verde	48,885
4	United Kingdom (including BOTs)	47,492
5	India	44,051
6	Italy	36,227
7	Guinea-Bissau	32,535
8	Nepal	29,972
9	China (including SARs)	28,127
10	France	27,549
11	São Tomé and Príncipe	26,460
12	Bangladesh	25,666
13	Ukraine	23,499
14	Germany	22,858
15	Romania	20,881
16	Spain	20,573
17	Pakistan	17,148
18	United States	14,126
19	Netherlands	13,593
20	Russia	10,901
21	Venezuela	9,300
22	Mozambique	8,127
23	Belgium	6,723
24	Sweden	6,070
25	Ireland	5,450
26	Moldova	5,156

The following table shows the evolution of the number of foreigners whose residence is legally registered in Portugal from January 2008 to January 2016. The table considers the most frequent foreign nationalities found in the country and deals with foreigners only, thus excluding those who have acquired Portuguese citizenship, their descendants, and people with a migrant background.^[168]

During the given timespan, the number of foreigners in Portugal fell from 446,333 to 388,731, recording a 12.89% loss in eight years. Portugal was particularly hit by the 2008 Global recession. Between 2008 and 2013, Portugal experienced a notable uptick in its unemployment rate, escalating from 7.6% to 17.1%. The GDP in 2013 saw a marked 7.60% decline compared to its 2007 value. During this period, inflation reached 10.35%, substantially eroding the purchasing power of Portuguese households. Of those who were obliged to leave the country, 5.47% or 22,547 people were foreign nationals, and 65.3% of the foreigners doing so left the country permanently.^[77][79][78] Despite the crisis and the subsequent emigration, one of the main reasons for the reduction in the number of foreigners in Portugal is due to the high number of naturalisations: 179,458 foreigners became Portuguese from January 2008 to December 2015.^[169]

As for the main foreign communities, one can see that:^[169]

• Communities whose decline is mostly attributable to citizenship acquisition:
  • Between 2008 and 2016, the Cape Verdean population in Portugal decreased by 25,993. Yet, during the same period, 31,970 Cape Verdeans gained Portuguese citizenship, resulting in a net gain of 5,977 of recent Cape Verdean migrant background;
  • From 2009 to 2016, the number of Ukrainians in Portugal fell by 16,715. However, 18,206 Ukrainians became Portuguese citizens, resulting in a net increase of 1,491 people of recent Ukrainian migrant background;
  • Between 2008 and 2016, the Angolan community in Portugal reduced by 14,572, but 14,945 Angolans acquired Portuguese citizenship, roughly maintaining the community of recent Angolan migrant background size (+373);
  • From 2010 to 2016, the Guinean-Bissau community shrank by 7,948, yet 16,284 Guinean-Bissauans became Portuguese, resulting in a net growth of 8,336 of recent Guinean-Bissau migrant background;
  • From 2009 to 2016, the São Tomé e Príncipe community declined by 2,171 people. Since during the same timespan 7,185 San Tomeans acquired Portuguese citizenship, the community of people of recent São Tomé e Príncipe migrant background in the country actually increased by 5,014 people;
  • From 2009 to 2016, the Senegalese community declined by 558 people. Since during the same timespan 1,205 Senegalese acquired Portuguese citizenship, the community of people of recent Senegalese migrant background in the country increased by 647 people;
  • From 2010 to 2016, the Georgian community decreased by 445. However, 644 Georgians gained Portuguese citizenship, resulting in a net growth of 199 people of recent Georgian migrant background;
  • Between 2009 and 2016, the Belarusian community shrank by 384. Yet, 412 Belarusians became Portuguese citizens, maintaining the community size;
  • Between 2009 and 2016, the Guinean community in Portugal decreased by 325. Nevertheless, 2,201 Guineans became Portuguese citizens, leading to a net increase of 1,876 of recent Guinean migrant background;
  • From 2009 to 2016, the Ecuadorian community fell by 211. Nevertheless, 289 Ecuadorians acquired Portuguese citizenship, keeping the community size stable.
• Communities whose decline is mostly attributable to other factors such as emigration and negative natural balance:
  • Between January 2011 and January 2016, the number of Brazilians residing in Portugal decreased by 36,773. During the same period, 26,100 Brazilians acquired Portuguese nationality, indicating that, considering both natural changes (such as births and deaths) and the influx of migrants, Portugal saw a net loss of 10,673 people of recent Brazilian background;
  • From 2009 to 2016 the Moldovan community in Portugal declined by 14,199 people: this is mostly attributable to the fact that 14,082 Moldovans became Portuguese during the given period, even though the migration deficit suggests a net decrease of 117 people of recent Moldovan background.
  • Between 2008 and 2016 the number of English people fell by 6,341. Since only 127 Britons became Portuguese nationals during the same period, this means the British community fell by 6,214 people;
  • Between 2008 and 2016 the number of Mozambicans fell by 3,145. Since 1,615 Mozambicans became Portuguese nationals during the same period, this means the Mozambican community fell by 1,530 people;
  • Between 2008 and 2016 the number of French people fell by 2,099. Since only 178 French became Portuguese nationals during the same period, this means the French community fell by 1,921 people.

Country	2008[170][171]	2009[172][171]	2010[173][171]	2011[174][171]	2012[175][171]	2013[176][171]	2014[177][171]	2015[178][171]	2016[179][171]
Brazil	70,132	106,961	116,220	119,363	111,445	105,622	92,120	87,493	82,590
United Kingdom	23,574	15,372	16,374	17,202	17,681	16,655	16,474	16,562	17,233
Cape Verde	64,667	51,353	48,845	43,979	43,920	42,857	42,401	40,912	38,674
India	4,401	5,519	5,782	5,271	5,384	5,657	6,022	6,421	6,935
Angola	32,819	27,619	26,557	23,494	21,563	20,366	20,177	19,710	18,247
Italy	5,994	3,915	4,500	5,067	5,338	5,222	5,121	5,328	6,130
France	10,540	4,576	4,883	5,111	5,293	5,201	5,268	6,542	8,441
Ukraine	39,606	52,494	52,293	49,505	48,022	44,074	41,091	37,852	35,779
Nepal	314	560	685	797	1,145	1,702	2,588	3,544	4,798
Guinea-Bissau	25,039	24,390	22,945	19,817	18,487	17,759	17,846	17,981	17,091
Romania	19,280	27,769	32,457	36,830	39,312	35,216	34,204	31,505	30,523
China	10,982	13,347	14,412	15,714	16,795	17,460	18,681	21,453	21,376
Germany	15,493	8,187	8,614	8,967	9,054	8,606	8,581	8,752	9,035
Spain	18,031	7,220	8,060	8,918	9,310	9,351	9,541	9,692	10,019
Bangladesh	1,193	1,577	1,346	1,007	1,149	1,351	1,733	2,074	2,571
São Tomé and Príncipe	11,015	11,726	11,514	10,516	10,518	10,376	10,304	10,167	9,555
Netherlands	6,598	4,360	4,577	4,725	4,862	4,848	4,991	5,262	5,855
Pakistan	2,383	2,736	2,698	2,604	2,474	2,425	2,628	2,785	3,042
United States	8,733	2,373	2,293	2,236	2,332	2,427	2,785	2,728	2,619
Venezuela	3,740	2,364	2,169	2,009	1,999	1,945	1,898	1,913	2,010
Belgium	3,101	1,560	1,609	1,707	1,752	1,771	1,881	2,105	2,388
Russia	5,674	6,191	6,132	5,299	4,878	4,581	4,428	4,404	4,260
Sweden	1,655	699	746	804	918	977	1,189	1,415	1,989
Moldova	14,813	21,147	20,773	15,641	13,586	11,503	9,971	8,460	6,948
Bulgaria	5,076	6,456	7,202	8,174	8,606	7,439	7,553	7,037	6,722
Mozambique	5,954	3,372	3,328	3,122	3,028	2,909	2,849	2,832	2,809
Poland	913	925	1,042	1,195	1,280	1,222	1,238	1,307	1,382
Ireland	887	616	707	813	862	838	805	823	892
Switzerland	1,842	1,011	1,003	1,036	1,030	1,025	1,055	1,104	1,263
Morocco	1,928	1,870	1,933	1,779	1,796	1,756	1,808	1,731	1,681
South Africa	2,116	597	589	580	582	573	560	620	635
Colombia	675	591	592	586	759	855	866	869	907
Senegal	1,966	2,073	1,778	1,677	1,626	1,631	1,670	1,629	1,515
Thailand	193	278	455	722	922	1,009	1,021	1,169	1,428
Iran	632	177	215	261	339	447	499	525	545
Austria	827	422	445	494	522	510	537	561	607
Canada	1,992	785	701	721	723	746	732	741	738
Denmark	1,075	432	468	464	487	500	515	525	575
Cuba	731	802	850	816	795	803	841	917	901
Turkey	310	286	322	404	440	537	431	650	596
Uzbekistan	604	851	951	1,075	1,104	1,119	1,081	1,024	992
Hungary	386	333	352	428	435	414	424	482	480
Finland	702	354	354	374	395	391	397	543	834
Philippines	496	475	491	540	586	623	638	668	756
Syria	96	24	25	25	24	34	73	144	164
Guinea	1,847	1,851	1,848	1,409	1,549	1,603	1,621	1,600	1,526
Norway	834	375	379	428	432	436	455	490	515
Argentina	717	474	498	494	487	485	462	461	447
Nigeria	354	281	299	286	325	350	365	424	428
Algeria	231	224	231	253	248	257	288	308	316
Lithuania	430	505	558	614	546	542	532	532	535
Greece	252	139	157	163	178	161	170	191	248
Indonesia	38	53	72	99	98	130	130	130	140
Mexico	363	245	281	310	311	326	385	413	433
Afghanistan	5	1	2	3	5	27	31	34	41
Kazakhstan	598	740	748	740	704	666	623	582	537
Latvia	193	240	311	383	370	361	335	313	333
Czech Republic	313	202	223	251	231	210	231	264	274
Belarus	782	1,016	1,002	910	823	758	744	695	632
Tunisia	124	123	136	132	130	128	162	171	176
Australia	544	230	220	218	224	226	252	263	269
Egypt	358	409	394	333	313	299	321	329	298
Peru	325	260	282	267	277	282	294	278	256
Equador	427	503	471	419	364	338	325	298	292
Luxembourg	165	124	130	137	130	128	122	142	144
Lebanon	206	57	46	47	51	72	95	167	162
Chile	301	177	210	213	218	205	173	165	183
Israel	137	72	66	71	78	84	92	94	108
Japan	976	383	377	368	385	392	393	386	397
Iraq	157	30	40	36	44	84	93	125	126
Slovakia	187	173	197	208	198	171	174	156	164
Georgia	868	1,128	1,172	1,098	1,040	949	902	847	727
Vietnam	15	18	56	79	67	108	65	78	77
Croatia	154	80	76	84	85	86	101	141	174
Gambia	90	116	116	110	119	139	157	163	152
Estonia	86	79	111	113	114	104	109	111	121
Timor Leste	86	77	111	158	177	303	245	201	169
Jordan	92	34	33	36	33	40	49	73	138
Serbia	380	287	249	219	186	215	213	195	192
Cameroon	79	72	84	76	72	95	108	132	127
Slovenia	57	44	49	60	61	60	71	82	96
DRC	425	210	184	171	178	238	243	234	235
South Korea	263	131	144	146	155	170	156	187	182
Uruguay	154	126	128	135	126	126	128	123	122
Ghana	202	213	197	169	156	147	145	143	137
Ivory Coast	157	123	120	118	100	115	117	120	121
Dominican Republic	92	64	70	86	98	114	133	136	132
Eritrea	0	2	4	1	5	38	35	35	40
Sudan	16	7	7	7	9	29	34	32	38
Cyprus	3	8	11	11	12	12	13	11	12
Paraguay	47	47	71	88	83	89	99	97	92
Iceland	68	31	34	42	47	53	51	59	62
Bolivia	99	107	118	117	128	120	116	116	109
Sierra Leone	115	54	59	55	47	48	55	52	63
New Zealand	79	35	33	35	30	33	33	42	39
Malta	14	17	22	17	24	20	18	22	25
Sri Lanka	3	16	18	18	17	38	47	54	60
Libya	54	24	10	13	16	27	60	116	196
Malaysia	59	33	34	29	38	34	37	50	59
Kenya	311	60	50	41	40	45	58	54	64
Singapore	46	13	15	21	27	22	29	32	28
Costa Rica	22	19	22	56	54	52	53	59	53
Albania	60	53	42	37	36	36	33	34	42
Armenia	61	88	83	94	88	73	81	80	74
Guatemala	35	25	31	36	39	45	45	49	51
Panama	38	33	31	32	39	39	28	32	27
Zimbabwe	92	39	37	33	26	25	29	32	38
Congo	134	131	120	91	93	91	83	78	64
Mali	115	108	95	79	66	62	57	58	45
El Salvador	17	21	23	30	39	37	34	32	36
South Sudan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Somalia	1	1	0	0	1	58	63	55	54
Ethiopia	22	27	27	30	38	56	51	56	51
Azerbaijan	10	23	19	17	25	25	34	42	46
Togo	55	83	67	50	37	37	32	32	35
North Macedonia	51	19	20	11	12	21	15	21	27
Palestine	23	23	23	33	32	32	35	57	52
Honduras	17	15	18	25	25	27	23	24	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	127	50	50	47	40	59	56	50	57
Nicaragua	13	12	15	21	20	19	18	18	16
Saudi Arabia	23	15	9	6	7	9	18	47	20
Taiwan	8	18	23	26	35	42	34	36	36
Saint Kitts and Nevis	2	0	0	0	0	0	7	20	15
Tanzania	335	63	57	54	45	48	43	38	32
Cambodia	0	0	35	10	8	10	12	12	10
Uganda	14	12	11	8	8	11	18	21	18
Equatorial Guinea	33	12	10	7	9	9	9	60	51
Namibia	10	12	12	15	15	16	13	16	18
Tajikistan	3	1	2	3	3	5	8	10	15
Mauritius	13	7	6	4	6	9	10	16	17
Kyrgyzstan	49	55	50	41	42	38	30	33	31
Yemen	2	3	9	9	9	13	14	13	18
Gabon	8	12	13	13	10	15	13	31	17
Rwanda	33	20	25	14	16	22	23	18	20
Zambia	14	9	8	8	8	11	7	7	7
Mauritania	53	41	39	33	30	28	26	24	24
Burkina Faso	12	14	16	16	15	12	11	12	13
Kosovo	0	1	13	10	10	14	13	15	27
Kuwait	19	2	2	2	1	1	1	4	1
Mongolia	4	15	16	19	23	25	23	22	32
Benin	28	35	33	32	26	24	14	12	12
Unknown	17	54	48	29	34	22	19	14	14
Haiti	4	1	6	7	7	2	4	5	5
Montenegro	16	9	9	7	9	8	5	6	9
Stateless	273	31	0	0	13	18	14	11	0
Liberia	43	29	20	17	15	18	15	19	16
Malawi	27	6	9	9	9	11	11	9	12
Andorra	15	2	2	2	3	3	2	3	3
Trinidad and Tobago	21	4	9	6	5	8	10	11	8
Botswana	11	4	5	5	5	6	6	7	7
Jamaica	17	15	12	10	11	9	8	12	12
Madagascar	18	16	15	10	10	7	6	8	9
Dominica	3	13	11	8	9	9	8	8	7
Eswatini	16	10	9	10	11	11	9	7	8
Bahrain	16	0	1	1	1	1	1	5	4
Turkmenistan	4	3	3	3	7	5	4	4	12
Bhutan	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	1
United Arab Emirates	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	8	5
Niger	0	2	2	0	0	1	2	4	6
Liechtenstein	5	4	4	4	3	1	1	2	3
Central African Republic	5	5	5	5	4	4	10	11	7
Guyana	25	4	7	4	3	3	4	4	4
Maldives	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3
Myanmar	2	2	2	4	4	6	6	4	7
Antigua and Barbuda	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	1
Qatar	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Burundi	2	1	2	2	1	4	5	7	6
Seychelles	4	2	4	4	4	4	4	3	6
Grenada	3	3	3	3	5	3	4	4	4
Suriname	6	5	3	2	2	1	1	1	0
Other countries (below 5)	57	45	35	43	40	44	29	29	21
Total foreigners	446,333	440,277	454,191	445,262	436,822	417,042	401,320	395,195	388,731
Share of the population[180]	4.23%	4.17%	4.30%	4.21%	4.14%	3.98%	3.85%	3.81%	3.76%

The following table shows the evolution of the number of foreign residents from January 2016 to January 2024. The table considers the most frequent foreign nationalities found in the country and deals with foreigners only, thus excluding those who have acquired Portuguese citizenship, their descendants and people with migrant background.^[168]

During the given timespan, the number of foreigners in Portugal rose from 388,731 to 1,044,606, recording a 168.72% growth in eight years. Not only the level of foreigners in Portugal recovered the from levels before the 2008 financial crisis but, since 2019, it has even surpassed it. In fact in 2019 there were almost half a million foreign people living in Portugal, an historical record.^[181] Between 2013 and 2023, Portugal's unemployment rate declined from 17.1% to 6.1%,^[182] and the 2022 GDP increased by 18.45% compared to the 2013 GDP, despite the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent crisis due to lockdown. The 2022 GDP was 9.5% higher than the 2007 figure, marking Portugal's official recovery from the 2008 financial crisis and troika austerity measures in 2017. Additionally, from 2014 to 2019, there was modest price growth, with a 3.54% inflation rate. This led to a notable improvement in the purchasing power of Portuguese families.^[77][79][78]

The surge in the number of foreigners is explainable by the recovery of the Portuguese economy, special programs aimed at attracting foreigners such as Golden Visa program and the stagnation of the Brazilian economy, with Brazilians being the largest immigrant group in the European country.

As for the main foreign communities, one can see that:^[169]

• The overwhelming majority of the communities experienced a significant increase since 2016; this is the case for instance, for the following countries:
  • Brazil: Brazilians grew by 285,859 people or +204.6% since 2016. In addition 57,006 Brazilians became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Angola: Angolans grew by 37,342 or +535.2% since 2016. In addition 12,147 Angolans became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • India: Indians grew by 37,116 or +535.2% since 2016. In addition 7,555 Indians became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • United Kingdom: Britons grew by 30,259 or +175.6% since 2016. In addition 1,041 Britons became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Italy: Italians grew by 30,097 or +491.0% since 2016. In addition 306 Italians became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Nepal: Nepalis grew by 25,174 or +524.7% since 2016. In addition 7,160 Nepalis became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Bangladesh: Bangladeshis grew by 23,095 or +898.3% since 2016. In addition 3,836 Bangladeshis became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • France: French grew by 19,108 or +226.4% since 2016. In addition 309 French became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Bissau-Guineans: Bissau-Guineans grew by 18,444 or +107.9% since 2016. In addition 11,618 Bissau-Guineans became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • São Tomé and Príncipe: San Tomeans grew by 16,933 or +177.2% since 2016. In addition 6,945 San Tomeans became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Germany: Germans grew by 13,823 or +153.0% since 2016. In addition 236 Germans became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Cape Verdeans: Cape Verdeans grew by 10,211 or +26.4% since 2016. In addition 24,678 Cape Verdeans became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Pakistan: Pakistanis grew by 14,106 or +463.7% since 2016. In addition 3,178 Pakistanis became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • US: US citizens grew by 11,107 or +439.4% since 2016. In addition 419 US citizens became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Spain: Spaniards grew by 10,554 or +105.3% since 2016. In addition 375 Spaniards became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Netherlands: Dutch people grew by 7,737 or +132.1% since 2016. In addition 74 Dutch became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • China: Chinese grew by 6,751 or +155.9% since 2016. In addition 1,001 Chinese became Portuguese since January 2016;
  • Russia: Russians grew by 6,641 or +155.9% since 2016. In addition 1,945 Russians became Portuguese since January 2016;
• Of the foreign communities experiencing a population decline, this is mostly attributable to citizenship acquisition as in the case of:
  • Ukrainians: their number fell by 12,280 since 2016, but 15,473 Ukrainians became Portuguese in the same timespan;
  • Moldovans: their number fell by 1,792 since 2016, but 3,034 Moldovans naturalised as Portuguese since 2016;
  • Guineans: their number fell by 201 since 2016, but 1,100 Guineans received Portuguese IDs since 2016;
• A minor part of the foreign communities also experienced decline, which is not exclusively attributable to citizenship acquisition but to a combination of declining birth rate and higher emigration than immigration. This is, for instance, the case of:
  • Romania: Since 2020 the number of Romanians in Portugal decreased by 10,183 but the number of Romanians acquiring Portuguese citizenship stood at 1,484;
  • Bulgaria: Since 2018 the number of Bulgarians fell by 2,468 but the number of Bulgarians becoming Portuguese stood at 332;

Country	2016[179][171]	2017[183][171]	2018[184][171]	2019[185][171]	2020[186][171]	2021[187][171]	2022[188][171]	2023[11]	2024[9]
Brazil	82,590	81,251	85,425	105,423	151,312	183,993	204,694	239,744	368,449
Angola	18,247	16,994	16,854	18,382	22,691	24,449	25,802	31,761	55,589
Cape Verde	38,674	36,578	34,986	34,663	37,435	36,609	34,093	36,748	48,885
United Kingdom	17,233	19,387	22,432	26,445	34,357	46,239	41,934	45,265	47,492
India	6,935	7,244	7,990	11,393	17,619	24,550	30,251	35,416	44,051
Italy	6,130	8,523	12,925	18,862	25,408	28,159	30,819	34,039	36,227
Guinea-Bissau	17,091	15,653	15,198	16,186	18,886	19,680	20,357	23,737	32,535
Nepal	4,798	5,835	7,437	11,489	16,849	21,015	21,545	23,839	29,972
China	21,376	22,555	23,245	25,420	27,905	26,182	23,025	22,230	28,127
France	8,441	11,293	15,319	19,771	23,126	24,935	26,719	27,512	27,549
São Tomé and Príncipe	9,555	8,980	8,605	9,153	10,240	10,706	11,234	13,077	26,488
Bangladesh	2,571	2,799	3,450	5,325	7,964	9,916	10,936	16,468	25,666
Ukraine	35,779	34,490	32,453	29,218	29,718	28,629	27,195	25,445	23,499
Germany	9,035	10,030	11,160	12,817	14,669	16,041	18,340	20,500	22,858
Romania	30,523	30,429	30,750	30,908	31,064	30,052	28,911	23,393	20,881
Spain	10,019	11,133	12,526	14,066	15,844	16,981	18,546	19,508	20,573
Pakistan	3,042	3,175	3,380	4,373	5,310	6,381	7,499	10,828	17,148
United States	2,619	2,704	2,888	3,254	4,134	4,768	6,885	9,794	14,126
Netherlands	5,855	6,838	7,837	8,984	10,038	10,392	11,013	12,066	13,592
Russia	4,260	4,280	4,264	4,365	4,885	5,103	5,156	6,075	10,901
Venezuela	2,010	2,356	3,104	4,740	6,551	7,741	8,296	8,936	9,300
Mozambique	2,809	2,848	2,854	3,005	3,501	3,678	3,803	4,785	8,127
Belgium	2,388	2,853	3,508	4,147	4,781	5,183	5,657	6,088	6,723
Sweden	1,989	2,633	3,564	4,274	4,912	5,181	5,486	5,653	6,070
Ireland	892	1,031	1,337	1,752	2,249	2,630	3,327	4,159	5,450
Moldova	6,948	6,125	5,210	4,834	5,098	5,183	5,177	5,243	5,156
Poland	1,382	1,576	1,898	2,320	2,759	3,061	3,651	4,326	4,931
Bulgaria	6,722	7,019	7,033	6,931	6,839	6,745	6,491	5,139	4,565
Switzerland	1,263	1,557	1,841	2,190	2,582	2,877	3,179	3,501	3,836
Morocco	1,681	1,576	1,511	1,539	1,684	1,936	2,136	2,575	3,739
South Africa	635	839	1,020	1,379	1,605	1,640	1,748	2,162	3,325
Colombia	907	886	922	973	1,264	1,466	1,690	2,135	3,092
Senegal	1,515	1,356	1,241	1,248	1,446	1,537	1,673	2,014	2,571
Iran	545	652	699	838	1,099	1,281	1,431	1,797	2,456
Canada	738	738	830	882	1,012	1,098	1,271	1,624	2,200
Turkey	596	696	743	1,090	1,293	1,518	1,363	1,367	2,555
Thailand	1,428	1,475	1,691	1,593	1,726	1,723	1,795	1,977	2,144
Algeria	316	315	326	339	517	633	750	1,015	2,023
Austria	607	757	955	1,119	1,317	1,372	1,467	1,643	1,810
Cuba	901	965	929	975	1,116	1,199	1,264	1,483	1,807
Denmark	575	658	879	979	1,165	1,333	1,528	1,583	1,800
Argentina	447	438	424	486	560	677	813	1,079	1,633
Philippines	756	750	763	852	997	1,072	1,107	1,208	1,535
Nigeria	428	478	508	543	668	758	866	1,050	1,478
Syria	164	470	716	848	1,105	1,108	1,191	1,193	1,434
Hungary	480	520	597	748	881	941	1,059	1,230	1,456
Uzbekistan	992	968	1,017	986	1,109	1,137	1,201	1,297	1,333
Guinea	1,526	1,363	1,275	1,345	1,415	1,402	1,204	1,182	1,325
Finland	834	998	1,163	1,263	1,271	1,152	1,157	1,210	1,300
Timor Leste	169	188	207	263	344	291	234	361	1,199
Norway	515	573	680	784	874	965	1,052	1,086	1,196
Tunisia	176	203	232	286	358	461	550	731	1,172
Equador	292	342	371	330	495	414	469	615	1,146
Lithuania	535	585	649	748	833	891	896	1,006	1,134
Greece	248	327	425	516	633	679	794	979	1,134
Lebanon	162	218	325	440	565	607	567	604	1,116
Belarus	632	626	565	557	564	564	594	731	1,077
Vietnam	77	124	194	324	515	686	640	473	1,052
Indonesia	140	157	182	280	425	509	717	892	1,031
Egypt	298	279	315	355	475	549	573	636	1,007
Mexico	433	474	516	520	595	640	699	826	995
Afghanistan	41	38	50	60	62	73	598	775	970
Peru	256	284	251	285	325	375	466	617	923
Israel	108	135	178	198	268	337	401	569	922
Australia	269	298	332	372	459	520	548	673	904
Latvia	333	349	391	443	493	518	592	749	896
Chile	183	216	214	236	306	339	409	586	895
Czech Republic	274	308	385	463	509	541	620	736	838
Kazakhstan	537	528	516	495	581	633	709	760	815
Luxembourg	144	166	193	237	295	387	472	605	726
Iraq	126	228	285	352	404	486	578	555	717
Gambia	152	151	149	156	186	239	274	464	716
Japan	397	440	450	460	455	441	483	568	649
Jordan	138	189	293	321	456	459	385	313	581
Slovakia	164	207	248	287	322	324	393	491	579
Croatia	174	222	300	350	375	399	429	464	516
Georgia	727	617	531	453	450	447	467	490	507
Estonia	121	157	192	228	259	290	316	373	439
South Korea	182	215	206	172	200	228	226	271	365
Cameroon	127	169	148	172	183	221	249	306	356
Ghana	137	141	146	142	173	185	212	251	349
Serbia	192	188	205	201	219	234	274	311	339
Slovenia	96	117	136	151	173	209	251	290	327
DRC	235	225	234	240	243	253	247	279	317
Uruguay	122	127	133	132	171	191	226	255	267
Ivory Coast	121	132	129	148	169	191	189	193	240
Dominican Republic	132	136	147	147	161	172	171	181	230
Cyprus	12	29	43	59	84	102	126	175	219
Iceland	62	66	70	88	108	119	134	165	213
New Zealand	39	45	55	73	84	82	104	150	207
Paraguay	92	103	118	102	124	134	149	167	206
Sri Lanka	60	77	72	83	89	102	106	129	203
Saudi Arabia	20	98	115	165	182	175	97	59	203
Sudan	38	50	28	60	105	139	171	177	203
Bolivia	109	104	105	125	120	130	137	154	185
Malta	25	24	42	47	61	85	109	146	184
Kenya	64	75	78	97	107	106	107	111	176
Malaysia	59	60	62	67	90	107	105	120	170
Libya	196	96	126	115	168	163	140	127	160
Singapore	28	38	32	40	52	77	93	109	156
Sierra Leone	63	60	64	76	88	95	106	152	155
Eritrea	40	130	155	206	209	213	209	178	154
Armenia	74	89	102	78	81	83	82	98	148
Costa Rica	53	61	80	86	81	78	94	101	131
Albania	42	47	59	85	84	85	91	99	120
Zimbabwe	38	37	52	64	64	67	72	89	118
Guatemala	51	43	43	50	59	71	79	94	112
Azerbaijan	46	35	50	47	67	65	52	68	107
El Salvador	36	38	44	46	54	50	55	79	103
Congo	64	83	73	80	79	88	83	83	101
Panama	27	32	61	75	66	67	64	91	99
Cambodia	10	19	9	17	29	50	46	48	98
Ethiopia	51	53	48	50	57	58	60	68	94
Palestine	52	73	62	70	79	86	61	66	91
Mali	45	57	49	52	52	75	65	82	88
Somalia	54	51	47	64	42	63	61	70	87
North Macedonia	27	33	43	55	66	50	57	66	85
Kuwait	1	6	29	21	57	43	33	25	85
Saint Kitts and Nevis	15	17	31	41	67	46	46	56	77
Honduras	30	32	36	41	48	48	58	64	76
South Sudan	0	0	0	0	39	53	64	70	74
Taiwan	36	39	32	41	36	42	46	58	74
Togo	35	37	30	31	37	37	50	67	68
Bosnia and Herzegovina	57	54	59	58	59	58	61	63	66
Nicaragua	16	15	16	23	35	38	48	61	66
Uganda	18	25	26	26	32	37	43	46	60
Equatorial Guinea	51	55	62	58	69	44	44	45	55
Tanzania	32	27	26	35	40	29	37	48	55
Mauritius	17	22	19	33	34	32	27	37	55
Yemen	18	18	14	16	29	40	44	34	52
Namibia	18	16	18	20	28	32	34	41	48
Tajikistan	15	16	18	24	26	32	34	39	46
Kyrgyzstan	31	27	31	26	27	36	33	36	44
Rwanda	20	26	33	28	29	29	27	31	42
Burkina Faso	13	17	24	24	30	30	27	27	32
Kosovo	27	21	43	39	36	35	26	27	32
Mauritania	24	25	25	27	23	24	23	29	31
United Arab Emirates	5	9	25	19	31	36	20	10	31
Mongolia	32	27	27	23	20	22	24	25	29
Benin	12	12	11	12	11	10	14	23	29
Gabon	17	22	21	24	28	30	27	33	28
Zambia	7	5	9	8	13	21	29	29	28
Madagascar	9	7	9	10	11	14	16	15	27
Dominica	7	5	9	8	13	19	20	15	27
Liberia	16	13	12	14	14	16	15	19	27
Malawi	12	17	19	19	18	17	20	19	26
Montenegro	9	12	12	11	16	15	19	21	23
Trinidad and Tobago	8	7	12	10	14	16	17	19	23
Bahrain	4	11	10	13	12	12	12	13	23
Antigua and Barbuda	1	0	0	5	1	12	12	7	20
Unknown	14	15	13	9	11	29	22	23	20
Haiti	5	6	7	5	9	10	14	22	20
Jamaica	12	15	13	13	14	14	17	17	19
Eswatini	8	4	5	5	6	7	10	13	18
Andorra	3	9	11	16	13	15	11	19	17
Myanmar	7	9	10	5	3	3	6	8	17
Botswana	7	4	7	7	4	8	12	18	16
Turkmenistan	12	5	7	11	12	13	13	12	14
Bhutan	1	3	4	5	5	7	7	10	13
Qatar	0	4	0	1	3	11	1	7	13
Stateless	0	0	31	30	33	30	24	20	12
Burundi	6	6	6	6	6	11	10	5	12
Liechtenstein	3	8	8	8	8	10	8	9	12
Niger	6	1	2	1	1	2	8	9	11
Guyana	4	7	9	9	9	11	11	8	10
Grenada	4	4	4	3	4	3	2	5	9
Vanuatu	0	1	1	1	2	3	4	3	9
Seychelles	6	7	7	10	5	11	8	5	8
Oman	3	2	7	6	9	8	8	4	8
Suriname	0	0	0	0	1	3	4	5	8
Maldives	3	3	6	9	8	7	7	8	8
Belize	6	6	8	7	8	7	4	4	7
Djibouti	0	5	1	5	6	5	3	4	7
Central African Republic	7	8	9	9	9	8	8	8	5
Other countries (below 5)	12	5	15	9**	6	22**	14**	32	34
Total foreigners	388,731	397,731	421,711	480,300	590,348	662,095	698,887	781,915	1,044,606
Share of the population[180]	3.76%	3.85%	4.08%	4.63%	5.68%	6.37%	6.70%	7.44%	9.82%'

The following table deals with the number of foreigners from selected communities in selected years, as well as their relative growth during specific timespans.

The 20 largest legal immigrant communities in 2007 compared with their numbers in 1999 *: European Union citizenship P: Portuguese speaking
Legal foreign residents	Number in 1999	2001 census [189][190]	2002[191][192]	2004[193][194]	2006[195]	2007	Growth in percentage(1999–2007)	2011[189]	% (2011)[189]	change 2001–2011[189]
BraziliansP	20,851	31,869	58,370	66,907	73,384	66,354	+ 218%	109,787	27.8%	+244.5%
CapeverdeansP	43,951	33,145	59,678	64,164	68,145	63,925	+ 45%	38,895	9.9%	+17.3%
AngolansP	17,721	37,014	31,332	35,264	33,215	32,728	+ 85%	26,954	6.8%	−27.2%
Guineans-BissauP	14,217	15,824	22,855	25,148	24,513	23,733	+ 67%	16,360	4.1%	+3.4%
SantomeansP	4,809	8,517	8,951	10,483	10,761	10,627	+ 121%	10,408	2.6%	+22.2%
MozambicansP	4,502	4,749	5,312	5,471	5,854	5,681	+ 26%	3,028
Ukrainians	123	10,793	60,571	66,227	41,870	39,480	+ 31998%	33,790	8.6%	+213.1%
Romanians*	224	2,661	10,673	12,155	10,299	19,155	+ 8451%	24,356	6.2%	+815.3%
Spanish*	11,122	9,047	14,587	15,916	16,597	18,030	+ 62%	10,486	2.7%	+15.9%
British*	13,335	8,227	15,899	18,005	19,592	23,608	+ 77%	15,774	4.0%	+91.7%
Moldovans	3	2,984	11,817	13,689	12,673	14,053	+ 468333%	10,475	2.7%	+251.0%
Russians	448	597	8,211	1,158	4,945	5,114	+ 1042%	4,878
French*	6,499	15,359	8,364	9,312	9,733	10,556	+ 62%	14,360	3.6%	−6.5%
MacaneseP	2,762	2,176	4,468	9,518	9,695	10,448	+ 278%	11,458	2.9%	+426.6%
Indians	1,211	1,361	1,503	5,088	3,614	4,104	+ 239%	5,384
Pakistanis		1,031	1,180	4,212	2,125			2,474
Germans*	9,605					15,498	+ 61%	9,054
US-Americans	7,975					8,264	+ 4%	2,331
Dutch*	3,675					6,589	+ 79%	4,862
Italians*	2,700					5,985	+ 122%	5,338
Bulgarians*	347					5,028	+ 1349%	8,606
Total non-EU			340,187	374,652	355,113
European Union			65,393	74,542	79,774
Total			405,580	449,194	434,887

In October 2023, Portugal dissolved the Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF) and replaced it with the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA). During this transfer, AIMA inherited a substantial backlog of unresolved immigration cases. Estimates at the time of transition indicated over 327,000 pending residence permit applications,^[196] with later figures ranging between 400,000 and 460,000 cases.^[197][198]

Although this administrative congestion caused widespread delays, it did not imply any illegal status for those affected. Foreign nationals who had expired permits remained legally present, as Portuguese authorities automatically extended their documentation through 30 June 2025, pending resolution of their ongoing cases.^[199] This extension ensured that individuals continued to have lawful rights to reside, work, and access public services while awaiting appointments, biometrics, or finalised residence documents.

The timing for processing residence permits slowed considerably. Before the AIMA transition, biometric appointment outcomes typically took two to three weeks, but under the new system, delays escalated to between two and three months on average.^[200] By late 2024, many applicants were reporting waits of between four and twelve months, particularly for special categories such as Golden Visa holders.^[201]

Recognising the scale of the issue, in June 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that AIMA must process pending cases within 90 working days.^[202] To comply, the government allocated approximately €6 million and established a "Mission Structure" that hired over 300 additional staff members and opened around 20 new service centres nationwide, intending to clear the backlog by June 2025.^[203][204] As of early 2025, AIMA had already processed over 200,000 pending cases and issued several thousand residence cards.^[205]

Many earlier immigrants have now become naturalized citizens: 359,506 people holding foreign nationality and residing in Portugal have become Portuguese nationals from 2008 to 2023,^[206] corresponding roughly to 3.38% of total population. However, there are still 1,044,606 foreign citizens resident in Portugal as of January 2024, accounting for 9.82% of Portugal's population.

The number of foreigners from Ukraine (23,499), Romania (20,881), Moldova (5,156) and Bulgaria (4,565) has been dropping steadily since 2011; there have been many naturalized Portuguese citizens with these backgrounds; respectively: 34,163 Ukrainians, 7,164 Romanians, 19,346 Moldovans and 1,157 Bulgarians have become Portuguese citizens from 2008 to 2022.

Below is a summary table of Portuguese citizenship acquisitions recorded between 2008 and 2023 for countries that have recorded at least 5 naturalisations during the given timespan. During this period, 359,506 people (3.38% of the current Portuguese population) obtained Portuguese citizenship according to the latest INE data. These people are not counted among foreigners (see above table) as they are Portuguese citizens in all respects.^[207]

The first 30 countries for the number of naturalised Portuguese citizens account for 96.78% of all naturalisations of foreign residents that occurred in Portugal from 2008 to 2023.

Nationality	Acquisitions of Citizenship (2008–2023)[207][169]
Brazil	95,186
Cape Verde	56,648
Ukraine	34,163
Guinea-Bissau	27,902
Angola	27,092
Moldova	19,346
São Tomé and Príncipe	15,521
India	12,917
Nepal	7,622
Romania	7,164
Russia	5,652
Pakistan	5,627
Bangladesh	5,461
Guinea	3,751
Mozambique	3,103
Israel	3,015
Venezuela	2,863
Morocco	2,395
Senegal	2,329
China	1,974
United Kingdom	1,168
Bulgaria	1,157
Georgia	1,078
Cuba	970
Colombia	795
Belarus	689
United States	678
Spain	639
Nigeria	530
Iran	495
Argentina	494
France	487
Ecuador	486
Kazakhstan	464
Philippines	457
Italy	440
Turkey	404
Germany	394
South Africa	356
Uzbekistan	347
Algeria	332
Egypt	326
Poland	311
Mexico	300
Syria	274
Peru	273
Serbia	251
Ghana	237
Gambia	216
DR Congo	201
Tunisia	200
Canada	179
Ivory Coast	164
Lebanon	151
Cameroon	145
Thailand	128
Belgium	128
Netherlands	126
Switzerland	122
Chile	121
Bolivia	109
Taiwan	103
Mali	101
Congo	96
Dominican Republic	94
Iraq	94
Armenia	92
Sierra Leone	91
Togo	88
Hungary	87
Latvia	75
Australia	75
Jordan	71
Uruguay	69
Palestine	67
Albania	64
Libya	54
Paraguay	54
Bosnia and Herzegovina	53
Sri Lanka	49
Guyana	47
Equatorial Guinea	47
Tanzania	46
Zimbabwe	43
Kyrgyzstan	43
Dominica	42
Vietnam	41
Czech Republic	40
Guatemala	40
Afghanistan	40
Eritrea	39
Lithuania	37
Kenya	36
Kosovo	36
Croatia	36
El Salvador	35
Benin	34
Somalia	34
Mauritania	33
Sweden	32
Costa Rica	32
North Macedonia	29
Panama	28
Greece	24
Ireland	23
Slovakia	23
Azerbaijan	23
Ethiopia	22
Liberia	22
Honduras	22
Gabon	20
Rwanda	18
Sudan	18
Montenegro	17
Japan	16
Malaysia	15
Burkina Faso	14
Finland	14
Yemen	14
Tajikistan	14
New Zealand	14
Nicaragua	13
Indonesia	12
Estonia	11
Luxembourg	10
Madagascar	10
South Korea	10
Denmark	10
Mauritius	9
Timor-Leste	9
Turkmenistan	9
Zambia	9
Mongolia	9
Aruba	8
Jamaica	8
Malawi	8
Uganda	8
Andorra	7
Eswatini	6
Norway	6
Austria	5
Belize	5
Seychelles	5
Stateless	5
Myanmar	5
Other countries (below 5)	76

In 2006, the Portuguese government made it easier for second-generation immigrants to gain citizenship to prevent illegal immigration.^[208][209] The rules were modified in 2022, making it even easier for children of foreigners to get access to the Portuguese citizenship.^[210]

Illegal immigration rose by 55% in 2009, with most of the illegals being Brazilian nationals.^[211] In 2012 there were estimated to be around 130,000 immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova illegally living in Portugal and mainly working in agriculture and services.^{[212][213][214]} As of 2024, there were an estimated 400,000 people waiting for their Portuguese residency card,^[215] this being a sharp increase of 100% from 2023, when around 200,000 people were living in the country without a residency permit, of whom around half were Brazilians.^[216]

Employers of illegal immigrants in Portugal face jail terms.^[217]

In 1496, the Portuguese monarchy issued an expulsion decree targeting Jews and Moors living in Portugal. This decree forced many Jews to either convert to Christianity (leading to the emergence of Cristão-novos and of Crypto-Judaism practices) or leave the country, leading to a diaspora of Portuguese Jews throughout Europe and the Americas.^{[218][219][220]}

The said decree annihilated the thriving Jewish culture in the country and up to the 19th century, when the Portuguese Inquisition ceased to exist, no synagogues were officially allowed to operate in the country. Some Jews started arriving in the early 1800s, particularly from Gibraltar or Northern Africa. The largest influx of Jews was recorded during WWII, when thousands of Jews fled Nazi persecution and came to neutral Portugal. The overwhelming majority of them subsequently settled in Israel, the US, Brazil or returned to their home countries.^{[221][222][223][224][225][226][227]}

Portugal's "Law on Nationality" amendment allows descendants of Portuguese Jews expelled during the Inquisition to gain citizenship within a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin with ties to Portugal. In 2020, there were proposed changes requiring a two-year residency for citizenship, but these were rejected by the Socialist party.

This amendment made Portugal the second country, after Israel, to adopt a Jewish Law of Return, with Spain later following suit. Introduced by the Socialist and Center Right parties, it received unanimous approval in April 2013 and took effect on 1 March 2015.^[228][229]

Applicants must prove Sephardic surnames in their family tree and a connection to the Portuguese Sephardic community, often verified by an orthodox rabbi. The language spoken at home, including Ladino, is also considered.^[230]

A feature of this law is its exemption from the typical six-year consecutive residency requirement for citizenship. Since 2015, hundreds of Turkish Jews with Sephardic ancestry have moved to Portugal and obtained citizenship. In 2017, nearly 1,800 descendants of Sephardic Jews were granted Portuguese nationality. By November 2020, Portugal had granted citizenship to approximately 23,000 people, constituting about 30% of the 76,000 applications submitted since 2015.^{[231][232][233][234][235]}

To combat fraudulent claims, the Portuguese government enacted a decree-law on 9 March 2022, increasing scrutiny for applicants, emphasizing a substantial connection with Portugal. Notably, these changes did not apply retroactively to those already granted citizenship, including individuals like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. As of January 2023, the number of pending cases had risen to over 300,000, underscoring the significant interest and impact of this amendment.^{[236][237][238][239][240]}

In recent years, thousands of Israelis, as well as Turkish Jews and Brazilian Jews, have been able to prove that they are descended from Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and have thus have acquired Portuguese citizenship.^{[241][242][243]} In particular, from 2015 to 2021 56,619 people who claimed Sephardic ancestry were able to obtain Portuguese citizenship.^[244] Amongst them, 54,402 or 96.08% did not live in Portugal. The five most common nationalities of those applying and succeeding in the naturalisation process were:

• Israel: 42,080 Israelis became Portuguese on the ground of their Sephardic heritage; of those naturalising, 95.87% or 40,343 did not live in Portugal at the time of their naturalisation
• Turkey: 5,819 Turks became Portuguese on the grounds of their Sephardic heritage; of those naturalising, 98.25% or 5,717 did not live in Portugal at the time of their naturalisation
• Brazil: 4,087 Brazilians became Portuguese on the ground of their Sephardic heritage; of those naturalising, 94.47% or 3,861 did not live in Portugal at the time of their naturalisation
• Argentina: 1,722 Argentines became Portuguese on the ground of their Sephardic heritage; of those naturalising, 96.34% or 1,659 did not live in Portugal at the time of their naturalisation
• United States of America: 551 US citizens became Portuguese on the ground of their Sephardic heritage; of those naturalising, 97.28% or 536 did not live in Portugal at the time of their naturalisation

Nationals of the five said countries naturalising as Portuguese citizens thanks to the 2015 Law totalled 54,259 people, or 95.83% of those acquiring Portuguese citizenship due to their Jewish ethnic background up to 2021.

Another group of immigrants, especially among non-European citizens, can avail the chance of residing in Portugal by making a financial investment. RBI (Residency by Investment) schemes, also called "golden visa" or "golden passport", offer non-European citizens a residency and work permit in Europe. According to RBI programs operated by a handful of Member States of the EU, non-European citizens can have access to residency or citizenship in exchange for specified investments in the country.

Under Portugal's Golden Visa program, which has been in service since 8 October 2012, the Portuguese government grants a residence permit to those who invest an amount of at least €350,000, which is maintained for at least five continuous years.

Below, there are flag maps showing, from left to right, the five most numerous foreign communities present in each Portuguese district as of 1 January 2022, according to official Portuguese data. These numbers take into account only foreigners, thus excluding Portuguese people of foreign background, who reside legally and permanently in Portugal.^[262]

• Flag maps of the five most important foreign communities in each Portuguese district as of 01.01.22
• Flag map of the most common foreign nationality in Portugal, per district. One can see the importance of the Brazilian immigration as well as the influx of Venezuelans in Madeira, Britons in Algarve and Indians in Beja
• Flag map of the second most common foreign nationality in Portugal in every district. Cape Verdeans are present in Lisbon Area, Italians in Porto while Britons and Romanians in the interior.
• Flag map of the third most common foreign nationality in Portugal in every district. US-citizens are present in the Azores, Chinese in the industrialized north while PALOP citizens in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area
• Flag map of the fourth most common foreign nationality in Portugal in every district. Angolans and Eastern Europeans (such as Ukrainians in Santarém) are present nationwide
• Flag map of the fifth most common foreign nationality in Portugal in every district. One can appreciate the presence of the Chinese near the Spanish border and the prevalence of Europeans along the coast

According to Eurostat, 59.9 million people lived in the European Union in 2023 who were born outside their resident country. This corresponds to 13.35% of the total EU population. Of these, 31.4 million (9.44%) were born outside the EU and 17.5 million (3.91%) were born in another EU member state.^[263][264]

Country	Total population (1000)	Total Foreign-born (1000)	%	Born in another EU state (1000)	%	Born in a non-EU state (1000)	%
EU 27	448,754	59,902	13.3	17,538	3.9	31,368	6.3
Germany	84,359	16,476	19.5	6,274	7.4	10,202	12.1
France	68,173	8,942	13.1	1,989	2.9	6,953	10.2
Italy	58,997	6,417	10.9	1,563	2.6	4,854	8.2
Spain	48,085	8,204	17.1	1,580	3.3	6,624	13.8
Poland	36,754	933	2.5	231	0.6	702	1.9
Romania	19,055	530	2.8	202	1.1	328	1.7
Netherlands	17,811	2,777	15.6	748	4.2	2,029	11.4
Belgium	11,743	2,247	19.1	938	8.0	1,309	11.1
Czech Republic	10,828	764	7.1	139	1.3	625	5.8
Sweden	10,522	2,144	20.4	548	5.2	1,596	15.2
Portugal	10,517	1,733	16.5	378	3.6	1,355	12.9
Greece	10,414	1,173	11.3	235	2.2	938	9.0
Hungary	9,600	644	6.7	342	3.6	302	3.1
Austria	9,105	1,963	21.6	863	9.5	1,100	12.1
Bulgaria	6,448	169	2.6	58	0.9	111	1.7
Denmark	5,933	804	13.6	263	4.4	541	9.1
Finland	5,564	461	8.3	131	2.4	330	5.9
Slovakia	5,429	213	3.9	156	2.9	57	1.0
Ireland	5,271	1,150	21.8	348	6.6	802	15.2

Chinese restaurant in Lisbon	Nepalese restaurant in Lisbon	South Asians in Alentejo	Immigrants in Odemira	Multiethnic Carnival in Agualva
Trilingual (Portuguese-English-Chinese) leaflet in Portugal	South Asians in Vila Nova de Milfontes	German establishment in Algarve	Dominicans in Lisbon in occasion of the 2020 Dominican Republic general election	Chinese dragon in Lisbon
Asian puppets in Museu da Marioneta, Lisbon	Thai pavilion in Lisbon	South Asian workers in Lisbon	Pro inclusivity street art in Parque das Nações	Buddha statue in Portugal

• Opposition to immigration
• Remigration
• Access to healthcare for migrants in Portugal
• Demographics of Portugal
• Portuguese diaspora (emigration from Portugal)
• Immigration to Europe
• List of countries by immigrant population
• List of countries by foreign-born population
• List of sovereign states and dependent territories by fertility rate