“The population decrease in 2021 resulted from a migratory balance of 25,642 people, which did not compensate for the negative natural balance, which worsened in 2021 to -45,220 (-38,828 in 2020)”, justified the INE.

According to INE, this is an 'ad hoc' exercise of resident population estimates, which will be revised after the final results of the 2021 Census are available.

The results now obtained translate into effective, migratory and natural growth rates of -0.19%, +0.25% and -0.44%, respectively.

In 2021, the aging index, which compares the population aged 65 and over (elderly) with the population aged 0 to 14 (young), reached the figure of 184.9 elderly people for every 100 young people (180.6 in 2020).

At the end of 2021, mainland Portugal had 9,864,372 inhabitants. The Lisbon Metropolitan Area concentrated 2,869,627 people and that of Porto 1,740,117 residents.