According to data from the estimates of the resident population in 2025, presented by the INE, the resident population of foreign nationality in Portugal was estimated at 1,597,539 people, of which 913,249 (57.2%) were men and 684,290 (42.8%) were women, representing 14.0% of the total resident population.

Main nationalities

Regarding nationalities, the INE estimates that in 2025 there were a total of “574,195 citizens of Brazilian nationality, which corresponds to 35.9% of the resident foreign population”, more than doubling the number compared to 2021 (106.5%), with an increase of 296,086 people.

“Angolan nationality was, in 2025, the second main foreign nationality, encompassing 103,140 people (6.5% of the total number of foreigners), which also represents a marked increase compared to 2021 (33,099)”.

Next come Indians (93,683 people, with 37,914 in 2021), Cape Verdeans (76,099), Nepalese (56,866), citizens of Bangladesh (56,724) and Guineans (53,555).

After these nationalities, Ukrainians (53,555), São Toméans (47,731), Pakistanis (39,638), citizens of the United Kingdom (38,640), Italians (32,784), French (26,549), Chinese (23,439) and Germans (21,635) follow, in the list published by the INE.

Nationalities that increased the most

In a comparison between the data from 2021 and 2025, according to the INE, São Toméans constitute the group of immigrants that increased the most in percentage terms (up 263%), followed by citizens of Bangladesh (230%), Pakistan (215%) and Angolans (212%), the only nationalities that tripled their volume.

In an analysis based on the planning regions (NUT2), the North is the region "where the largest number of people reside (3,790,554), concentrating 33.2% of the total population, followed by Greater Lisbon (2,415,261) and the Centre (1,771,259), where 21.1% and 15.5% of the total population reside, respectively."

"In 2025, the Greater Lisbon region, where 546,419 people of foreign nationality resided, concentrated 34.2% of the total number of foreigners in Portugal, followed by the North region, with 311,095 residents of foreign nationality and representing 19.5% of the total," can be read in the conclusions of the INE.

Smaller foreign population

In proportional analysis, the Azores is the region with the smallest number of foreign residents (only 0.6% of the total), while "the Algarve, with 161,556 foreigners, stood out as the region with the highest proportion of foreign residents in the total number of residents in the region, with 27.9%", followed by Lisbon (22.6%) and the Setúbal Peninsula (18.3%).

The presence of immigrants also contributed to an increase in the active population, counteracting the reduction in the young population.

"Between 2021 and 2025, the proportion of young people (population aged 0 to 14 years) decreased from 13% to 12.4% of the total population" and the "percentage of people of working age (population aged 15 to 64 years) increased from 63.7% to 64.3%, a contribution from recent migratory flows that tend to concentrate in this age group," says INE.