More than 850,000 people born in Portugal aged between 15 and 39 have chosen to live and work outside the country.
Around 30% of those born in Portugal aged between 15 and 39 decided to emigrate. According to figures from the Emigration Observatory and reported by Expresso, this percentage corresponds to more than 850,000 people.
Rui Pena Pires, the scientific coordinator of the Emigration Observatory, notes that this number is “very high” and has a “very complicated effect on fertility”. Births of children to Portuguese mothers abroad “already amount to around 20% of total births in Portugal”, he revealed.
Portugal is the country with the highest emigration rate in Europe and one of the highest in the world. The peak of emigration occurred between 2010 and 2019. In total, there are around 2.3 million Portuguese people living abroad, of which 70% are between 15 and 39 years old.