Two-person households account for the majority of homes, representing 33.3% of the total, and single-person households account for 24.8% of the total, with an increase of 18.6% compared to 2011.

It is in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area that households with one person represent the largest share (28.2%), while the smallest is registered in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, where 20.3% are single-person households.

The INE notes that larger households "have been losing expression", with households of four people representing 14.7% (less 1.9 percentage points than in 2011) and households with five people 5.6% (minus nine tenths of a percentage).

"These changes in the dimension of family structures are the result of trends observed in terms of fertility, nuptial and divorce patterns, which contribute to smaller households", says the organisation.

In 2021, there are 4,149,668 private households (2.6% more than in 2011) and 5,476 institutional households (13.3% more).

The largest increase in households was found in the Algarve region (6.3%), followed by the Autonomous Region of the Azores (4.4%), Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon (04%), North region (3.8%) , Autonomous Region of Madeira (2.2%) and Central Region (0.5%).