Portugal registers largest population ever
The country's resident population now exceeds 10.6 million.
Portugal’s resident population reached in 2023 the highest figure ever recorded since 1900, a source from the National Statistics Institute (INE) confirmed on Tuesday.
On 31 December, the country's resident population was estimated at 10,639,726 people, 123,105 more than in 2022, having increased for the fifth consecutive year.
The highest number recorded so far this year was in 2009, when 10,573,479 people lived in Portugal.
“The population increase resulted from a positive migration balance of 155,701 people (136,144 in 2022), which offset the negative natural balance of -32,596 (-40,640 in 2022),” according to INE.
In 2023, as a result of the increase in the birth rate, the average number of children per woman of childbearing age increased to 1.44 children, compared to 1.42 in 2022.
Demographic ageing in Portugal "continued to increase", noted the Institute.
In 2023, the ageing index, which compares the population aged 65 and over with the population aged zero to 14, reached 188.1 elderly people for every 100 young people (184.4 in 2022).
"The median age of the resident population in Portugal, which corresponds to the age that divides the population into two groups of equal size, rose from 46.9 years in 2022 to 47.1 years in 2023," said INE, when releasing the estimates of the resident population.
Of the total number of residents in the country at the end of last year, 5,083,568 were men and 5,556,158 women.
The increase of 123,105 people compared to 2022 represents an effective growth rate of 1.16 per cent, compared to 0.91 per cent in 2022, according to the same source.