As emigration leaves the country ever more depleted and life expectancy increases with modern healthcare, Portugal has now got to the stage where the number of elderly outstrips youngsters by 136 to every 100.
In 2013 alone, the country ‘lost’ 60,000 residents, writes Público newspaper. The figures point to the existence of only 10.427.301 people resident in Portugal at the end of last year. That’s really not much more than the population of Greater London.
And as statisticians and politicians ponder the implications, birth rates too are in free fall, with numbers registering an all-time low in 2013, and nothing to imply the situation is likely to change any time soon.
Right now, writes Público, the number of children being born is 1.21 per mother, whereas the number of elderly versus youngsters under the age of 15 has risen by 30 since 2012 when there were 106 people over the age of 65 to every 100 youngsters.
Meantime, a new study by university researchers has revealed that over a million people born in Portugal now reside elsewhere in Europe.
The traditionally popular destinations of France, Germany and Luxembourg have now been joined by Switzerland, UK and Spain – with UK being the “destination of the moment”.
In 2011, 16,000 Portuguese emigrated to UK, in 2012 that number increased to 20,000, and last year it was up to 30,000.
Photo: ADAM JONES
