According to the provisional results of the 2021 Census, released last Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), foreigners currently make up 5.3% of the population residing in Portugal, but 14.7% in the Algarve.
The number of foreigners residing in Portugal grew 40.6% compared to 2011. In total, there are now 555,299, 81% of which from countries outside the European Union.
The vast majority are concentrated in the south of the country, particularly in the Algarve and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Odemira (28.6%), Aljezur (26.3%), Vila do Bispo (26.1%), Lagos (23.4%) and Albufeira (20.4%) are the municipalities with the highest proportion of immigrants.
In total, 10,344,802 people resided in Portugal on April 19th 2021, the date on which the Census was carried out, meaning a population decrease of 2.1% since 2011 - the first time since 1970 that the number of inhabitants dropped.
The fall was the result of a negative natural balance, that is, the difference between births and deaths, which resulted in a loss of 250,066 people. The number of foreigners entering Portugal was not enough to compensate.
