Immigration to Portugal

As of 2007 Portugal had 10,617,575 inhabitants of whom 332,137, or 3.13%, were legal immigrants (51,7% female, 48,3% male).

Portugal, long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the last Portuguese overseas territories in India (until 1961), Africa (until 1975), and Far East Asia (until 1999). Since the 1990s, along with a boom in construction, several new waves of Ukrainian, Brazilian, people from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa and other Africans have settled in the country. Those communities currently make up the largest groups of immigrants in Portugal. Romanians, Moldovans and Chinese also have chosen Portugal as a destination. A number of EU citizens from the United Kingdom, Spain and other EU member states, have also chosen Portugal as a destination, with a major part of the British, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Scandinavian communities being mostly composed of persons looking for quality of life, including an increasing number of pensioners.