Another 110,000 Portuguese left the country last year, the second consecutive year that around 9,000 people a month have decided to seek their fortune in pastures green.
Portugal’s Centre for Emigration has concluded that the departure of Portuguese in 2013 and 2014 was stable at 110,000 per year for two years but in 2015 the exit rate has eased.
Professor Rui Pena Pires, (pictured below) from the Centre for Emigration commented that he was surprised at the 2014 figure as he and many others had assumed that most of those wanting to leave already had upped sticks in 2013.
The determination of a further 110,000 emigrants to suffer at the hands of Ryanair last year means that only now is the flow of exiting talent easing off.
The Prof reckons that "most likely in 2015 the figure will begin to come down."
The guesstimates for for 2013 and 2014 have not been seen since the late 1960s and early 1970.
The data is inaccurate as it depends in the record keeping of Portugal's overseas embassies and consulates, but not every emigrant registers when they arrive in their chosen destination and with the free movement of EC citizens within the Schengen area, it suits Portugal's government that it is hard to keep track of exiting numbers.
The data is collected only from 15 European countries and Angola, Brazil and Mozambique but even so, is incomplete for this year:
"The data that is still provisional because it is compiled from figures to the end of the first half of this year but we are missing information from France and Switzerland," said Pires.
The main countries to which Portugal’s finest are emigrating are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Germany and Spain with the UK leading the field with 30,000 a year deciding to suffer the weather in search of jobs with higher salaries.
