This country has been battling to boost its struggling birth rate and ageing population for almost a decade, having registered negative results since 2009.
Exacerbating this, according to newspaper Jornal de Notícias, is news that Portugal, over the past year, lost 32,000 residents.
In a nutshell, more people are leaving the country than coming into it, and more people are dying than being born in it.
According to data from the official EU statistics office, in 2016 Portugal had about 87,000 births - a rate of 8.4 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the second lowest rate in the EU, just ahead of Italy.
Portugal also had a death rate of 10.8 per 1,000 inhabitants; its total population declined from 10.341 million on 1 January, 2016, to 10.309 million on 1 January, 2017, representing exactly 2 percent of the population of the EU.
Eurostat noted there was an increase in the EU population from 510.3 million on 1 January, 2016, to 511.8 million on 1 January, 2017, but recorded the same number of births and deaths (5.1 million), which means that the natural variation of the population of the EU was neutral and the positive demographic variation of more than 1.5 million inhabitants is due to the migratory balance.
Germany is the most populous EU Member State, followed by France, (67 million), the United Kingdom (65.8 million), Italy, (60.6 million), Spain (46.5 million) and Poland (38 million).
Overall, the population increased throughout 2016 in 18 Member States and fell in 10 others, with the highest birth rates recorded in Ireland (13.5 per 1,000 population), Sweden and the United Kingdom (both 11.8) and the lowest in the southern countries: Italy and Portugal are followed by Greece (8.6) and Spain (8.7).
Earlier this year it was also revealed that Portugal had one of the lowest fertility rates in the EU, and was the country where the live birth rate had fallen the most.
Figures from Eurostat published in March showed that between 2001 and 2015, the number of live births in Portugal fell by more than 24 percent, from 112,774 to 85,500. In 2001, the fertility rate (number of live births per woman) was 1.45.
By contrast, Sweden saw the number of live births soar almost 26 percent, from 91,466 to 114,870.
Eurostat’s report further showed Bulgaria and Romania as the countries where women have their first child the youngest, at around 26-years-old. Italy is the country where they are oldest when giving birth to their first child, at almost 31.
In Portugal, the average age at which women have their first child is 29.5.
Portugal has second lowest birth rate in Europe, after Italy
By TPN/Lusa, in News · 13 Jul 2017, 12:50 · 1 Comments
Portugal does NOT have any problems regarding "population decay"!
News articles like this one are (purposely) incorrect because they're "based" solely upon half of the pertinent facts.
The truth is Portuguese politicians are (unfortunately) renowned for being (even corruptly) subservient to "big money" interests, be it National and/or International money.
As a result of this fact, whenever the E.U.'s socio-economic principles (literally) force the Portuguese Government to make Portuguese major employers improve upon the (ludicrously) low salaries and/or upon the (nearly miserable) working conditions which they impose upon the Portuguese, ordinary, working class Citizens; it also happens that the Portuguese Government's "Propaganda machine" spews out "sob stories" about (alleged) "population decay".
The (rather obvious) motive for this kind of "news" (Propaganda) to be circulated is to "justify" the Portuguese Government's catering to the cheap labour "needs" of Portuguese major employers, by admitting into its Territory loads of (easily) "exploitable" immigrants who will (even unwillingly) force the Portuguese Nationals to keep their labour demands low for fear of being (swiftly) replaced by immigrants in their work place.
It is pertinent to say that it has been proved that Portuguese politicians (often) seize the instance of conducting legal, official, "immigration-related business" with politicians of (certain) foreign Nations to also conduct (personal) "parallel" (illegal) business like, for example, money laundering and/or arms deals.
The immigrants in Portugal come (mostly) from the Portuguese (former) African Colonies (like Angola, Mozambique, Cape-Verde, Guinea-Bissau etc) or from Brazil, or from certain Eastern European Countries (like the Ukraine, Romania, Moldavia etc) or even from Asia (like China, although not necessarily from Macau; or from Bangladesh, or from Pakistan) and there is also a (tiny) minority of people that comes from other European Nations like, for instance, the U.K. expatriates who retire to live in the Portuguese District of Algarve.
It is also pertinent to say there are three secondary reasons (just as important as the labour-related reason) to explain Portugal's liberal (one might even say extremely liberal, if compared to, certain, other Nation's) immigration policies; and to explain them, as I will do now.
The first reason is: Portuguese people are (very justifiably) renowned as football(soccer) "fanatics", and a Portuguese, liberal, immigration policy allows for foreign, professional, football(soccer) players to gain swift admission into Portuguese football(soccer) clubs as their official "employees"/players.
The second reason is: Given the fact that Portuguese people are also (very justifiably) renowned as ("viral"/"infectious") immigrants themselves (any honest person from, for instance, the U.K; or from Luxembourg, or from France, or from Brazil will confirm the truth of this statement) and it would be, at least, awkward for either a Portuguese politician, or even for a "mere" Portuguese immigrant, to face Foreigners while being confronted with mentions of a Portuguese immigration policy that was not (at least) fairly liberal.
The third reason is: The vanity (I will repeat VANITY) of certain Portuguese politicians like, for instance, the current (in 2018) U.N. Secretary (and former High Commisioner for Refugees) António Guterres, who lobbied (along with his cronies) to attain such "Internationally acclaimed offices" and "bought" them by volunteering the (crisis-suffering) nation of Portugal to be a (supposed) "welcoming haven" for any, old, miserable Human on Earth. Well, if they are already miserable, at least they will fit right in alongside the (vast) majority of Portuguese people...
In conclusion I say that (most) Portuguese people have (INDEED) decided to NOT force their ("hypothetical"/"possible") future children (whom they theoretically love) to suffer the greatest economic crisis in (at least) Portugal's recent History and, therefore (most) Portuguese people have CONSCIOUSLY decided not to have children; and I must add that (unlike the article above states) a lot more than (just) 32.000 Portuguese residents have left Portugal to try their fortune elsewhere. But all of this happens because Portuguese politicians and Institutions are EXTREMELY corrput and (consequently) "Portuguese everyday life" is becoming, ever more unbrearable for ordinay, working class people.
Thank you for allowing me to post this comment and for reading it.
By João Regallo from Lisbon on 27 Jan 2018, 16:07