Portugal is losing inhabitants at a rate not witnessed since 1992 in a sustained and worrying trend.
More and more people are leaving their home countries for a life abroad yet fewer and fewer are choosing Portugal as the destination in which to live and work.
Between 2010 and 2013 the number of inhabitants in Portugal dropped by a naet 146,000, according to data from Pordata on the Manuel dos Santos Foundation website dedicated to population statistics.
The main reason for the overall drop is a perfect storm created by a large number of people leaving the country, locals and immigrants, who are not being replaced by more immigrants.
In 2013, a recorded 128,108 people emigrated from a resident population in Portugal of 10.4 million. Many of these were foreigners living in Portugal who decided to return to their countries of origin or another country.
These returnees have exacerbated the overall decline created by local Portuguese moving abroad, currently running at 3% per year.
Brazilians are the largest community in Portugal, followed by Cape Verde, Ukrainian and Romanian but with many giving up and going home, coupled with the decline in the birth rate during the recession, the situation looks bleak.
A decreasing workforce is swiftly being obliged to pay for an increasing number of pensioners while paying for a state that refuses to reduce its spending levels to an agreed Troika formula.
