Switzerland was the main destination for Portuguese immigration in 2020, followed by France and the United Kingdom, according to an immigration report released this Tuesday.
Last year, 7,542 Portuguese chose to live in Switzerland, the second largest country in the world with Portuguese settlements: 210,731 by 2020.
France is second with 7,643 entries in 2019, followed by the United Kingdom with 6,664 entries in 2020, up from more than 20,000 Portuguese in the previous year.
Following this is Spain which is one of the few important places where the influx of Portuguese people has been steadily increasing since 2013.
3,000 inputs per year come from Germany (5,380 in 2020), Luxembourg (3,286 in 2020) and Belgium (3,215 in 2019).
Also within the European space and with values close to 2,000 entries per year is the Netherlands (1,933 in 2020). Outside Europe, there are key sites for Portuguese immigration as part of the Portuguese Language Countries Community (CPLP): Angola (1,708 in 2019) and Mozambique (1,439 in 2016, last year data available).
By 2020, the Portuguese will be the second most represented nation in immigration to Luxembourg, followed by Macau and the fourth Switzerland.
In the United Kingdom and Brazil, the Portuguese represented about 2.1% of the total number of foreign immigrants by 2020, the eleventh and fifteenth representatives of the new immigrants that year, respectively.
The United Kingdom, a country that lost its leadership as a preferred country for Portuguese immigration, has recorded a 73% drop over the previous year.
Macau (-41.7%), Brazil (-37.7%), Spain (-36.3%), Canada (-35.7%) and the Netherlands (-32%), with lower values but less than 30%.
Taken as a whole, the 2020 data alone accounted for the largest positive and negative variations in immigration to Denmark (116 Portuguese inputs) and the United Kingdom (less than 17,929).
The report notes that more than half (14) of the 23 target countries with high Portuguese immigration are Europeans. Of the 10 major destinations for Portuguese immigration, only two are located on another continent: Angola and Mozambique.
The American nations today are, relatively, less important places where the value of flows, in all of them, is less than a thousand a year.
France continues to be the country with the largest number of Portuguese settlers in the world, with a population of over half a million (587,300 by 2020) due to massive immigration in the 60s / 70s of the last century.
Switzerland remains the world’s second-largest country with a population of more than 210,000 Portuguese immigrants (210,731 by 2020).
Next on the list of countries with more than 100,000 Portuguese immigrants are the United Kingdom (165,000 in 2020), the United States (157,000 in 2020), Canada (143,000 in 2016), Brazil (138,000) and Germany (114,000 in 2010) in 2020).
Despite a sharp drop in the number of entries in the United Kingdom, the population of Portuguese immigrants in this country remained stable over the previous year, maintaining its position in the United States and Canada.
The document notes that in 16 of the 19 countries surveyed, there are more male immigrants than women, predominantly male.
In terms of the age of the Portuguese immigrant population, half of the Portuguese population living in the two countries are considered elderly: Brazil (60% in 2010) and France (48.2% in 2018).
In contrast, the lowest proportion of Portuguese residents over the age of 65 are in Ireland (1.2% in 2016), Norway (2.3% in 2020) and the United Kingdom (1.2% in 2016) and the United Kingdom (1.2% in 2016). 2.5% in 2020).
The 2020 Immigration Report, presented today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon, was prepared by the Observatório da Emigrao, the research center of the ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.
Henry Blackwell is a contributor at Mediarunsearch.co.uk, covering a wide range of topics including news, politics, business, technology, sport, entertainment, and lifestyle. He focuses on delivering clear, balanced reporting and useful information that helps readers stay informed about current events and emerging developments. His work highlights stories that matter to everyday audiences, with an emphasis on accuracy, relevance, and accessible journalism.