“More than one in four foreigners residing in Portugal (28.9%) are in a situation of poverty or social exclusion, almost 10 percentage points above the Portuguese population (19.2%) in this situation,” although below the situation of immigrants in the EU (around 40%), indicates a detailed portrait of foreigners in Portugal, in matters of employment, education, migratory flows and nationality attributions, carried out by Pordata within the framework of World Migrants Day.

In Portugal, “gender inequalities in the labour market are more pronounced than in the population with Portuguese nationality,” with significantly more foreign men working than women (86.4% for men and 68.5% for women), a difference that is not as pronounced among Portuguese citizens (84.7% for men and 79.3% for women).

Unemployment

“Regarding the unemployment rate, among the foreign population, men register 8.3% and women 14.6%, while among the population with Portuguese nationality, the percentage is 4.8% for men and 5.3% for women,” says the report from the statistical portal of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

There are more foreigners than Portuguese citizens in the labour market (88.2% and 86.9%, respectively), but the data changes when analysing the percentage of people seeking employment (11.5% among foreigners and 5% among Portuguese citizens), which shows greater difficulties in access for those who are not national citizens.

“It is among the female population that there are the greatest differences between foreign residents and those of Portuguese nationality, both in the unemployment rate, which is 9.3 percentage points higher for foreign women, and in the employment rate, which is 11 percentage points lower than that of women with Portuguese nationality,” says Pordata.

The presence of more foreigners – 1,543,697 residents in Portugal at the end of 2024 – has also transformed the education system, with the number of students with at least one parent of foreign nationality having increased by 58% between 2020 and 2023, reaching 206,011 cases.

Regarding the granting of nationality, there was a 21% increase between 2023 and 2024, involving 20,624 citizens residing in Portugal, but the data released by Pordata indicate that the percentage of foreigners who apply for Portuguese citizenship is traditionally very low (five out of every hundred, when analyzing the “corresponding number of foreigners registered six years earlier”, the current deadline for making the application). Conversely, “the majority of Portuguese nationality was granted to residents abroad,” with 26,216 granted in 2024, “81% of which were to foreigners of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent.”

Migration flows

Regarding migration flows, in 2024, 177,557 people, both Portuguese and foreign nationals, immigrated to Portugal, and in the same period, “33,916 people (of Portuguese or foreign nationality) emigrated permanently, resulting in a positive migration balance of 143,641, slightly lower than in 2023 (155,701),” says Pordata.

Between 2009 and 2018, the country had more Portuguese immigrants than foreign immigrants, with the balance reversing in recent years, but regarding emigration, the balance has always been very significant, with 80% of those leaving the country being of Portuguese nationality.

Among emigrants, "young people between 20 and 34 years old have been the most prevalent group, almost always representing more than 50% and reaching a maximum of 57% in 2024," says the report.

"Between 2016 and 2023, the entry of immigrants of foreign nationality grew at an average annual rate of 37%, the highest in the EU27," the Pordata analysis also indicates.