Children born to foreign mothers represented 24 per cent of births in hospitals across the Algarve in 2008.
The number of babies born to foreign mothers increased from 216 in 2000 to 1,139 in 2008.
Brazilian nationals gave birth to 365 babies in the Algarve last year, followed by mothers from eastern European countries such as the Ukraine, Romania and Moldavia with 380.
A total of 67 babies were born to British mothers in the region.
