Among the Asian citizens, the largest number of requests came from Syria (426), Iraq (283), Afghanistan (32) and Pakistan (21), while 76 percent of the requests from European citizens came from Ukraine.
The countries with most requests from Africa were DR Congo (158), Angola (121), Eritrea (67),
Congo (58) and Guinea (42).
Meanwhile, more than 37,000 foreigners requested Portuguese nationality last year, 5.2% more than in 2016.
The Immigration, Borders and Asylum report from the border agency stated that it agreed to 28,673 requests and only turned down 1,311.
Brazilian citizens were most numerous in being given Portuguese nationality (10,805), followed by Cape Verde (3,022), Israel (2,539), Ukraine (1,960) and Angola (1,613).