Population statistics show immigration ‘now under control’ – minister

Portugal’s minister for the presidency, António Leitão Amaro, has stressed that the revised figure for the number of foreign residents in Portugal, released today by INE, national statistics institute, means that “immigration is now under control”.

“If the government had not, in early summer 2024, put an end to the expression of interest mechanism, and subsequently regulated other inflows, we would today be talking about a situation in which the immigrant population would account for 20% of the total population,” he told reporters, on the sidelines of the opening session of the conference “Libraries and Local Government: citizenship, networks and the future”, at Torre do Tombo in Lisbon.

Leitão Amaro’s reaction followed the publication of data which updated the number of residents in Portugal to 11,424,031 – thanks to the inclusion of 1,597,539 foreign nationals.

Leitão Amaro reiterated that the government had not governed on the basis of perceptions, emphasising that “it was correct in its description of reality”, whilst also denying that there had been any population exodus.

INE also revealed today that it will review all “per capita” indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and issues relating to the justice system, education and health, with Leitão Amaro noting that, “if, in 2023, it turns out that growth and per capita GDP were lower than previously reported, by 2025 per capita GDP will have even risen further”.

“The economy is at a stage, in 2025 and following the various policies this government has introduced across different sectors, where it is growing more per person than it was before,” he added.

According to INE, the previously published data has been updated, concluding that, “between 2021 and 2025, the resident population increased by 824,914 people, with the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 standing out, during which exceptionally high migration flows were recorded, resulting in population increases” of 330,000, 275,000 and 183,000 people respectively.

On the other hand, “demographic ageing in Portugal continued to accelerate, albeit tempered by the relative growth of the working-age population” and by 2025, the ageing index had reached a figure where there were almost twice as many older people as young people – “19 older people for every 10 young people” – whereas in 2021 the figures stood at 18 to 10.

source: LUSA