Population change, migration and mobility patterns in Portugal

Abstract

This chapter explores the most recent trends in migration, population change and settlement patterns in Portugal. The trend towards urban concentration, the bipolarisation of the urban network and the depopulation and economic decline of large areas of the country, developed since the middle of last century, are the result of the rural exodus, emigration and the sharp decline in the birth rate. In the last decade, particularly in recent years, there have been signs of revitalisation of some rural areas, due to the combined effects of the attraction of labour immigrants to work in agriculture, the return of Portuguese emigrants to their home regions and changes in the pattern of residential mobility of the Portuguese population, due to the widening of commuting belts and to a lesser extent some counter-urbanisation movements, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is based on secondary data from the Population Census and registers of the foreign population. Although these migratory flows have not significantly changed the settlement patterns and the regional distribution of the population, they can have a positive impact on the demographic and economic dynamics of some areas which, for several decades, have been affected by depopulation and ageing.