The Cascais Letter · Buyer notes · checked October 2026

Portugal's expat culture: who is actually moving here

The foreign population has quadrupled since 2017. Here is who is actually here, where they gather, and what landing in Portugal feels like in practice.

1.6 million foreigners, and the growth has stalled

The headline number: at the end of 2025, 1,585,854 foreigners held Portuguese residence titles, according to AIMA's annual migration report. That is 13.9% of the population: roughly one person in seven.

The arc: the foreign population has roughly quadrupled since 2017. But the pace has changed. After 13.9% growth in 2024, 2025 added just 2.7%. The wave is not over. It is just no longer accelerating.

The small print: the count covers residence-title holders only, not pending applications, and a title's issue date does not always match the arrival date. It is the best official picture available. Every number below uses it.

Brazil on its own planet, then everyone else

Five nationalities dominate the ranking. But look at the numbers: it is really one giant plus four.

NationalityResidentsWhy it matters
Brazilians493,622 (31.1%)A community bigger than most Portuguese cities. Shared language, historic ties and the CPLP mobility agreement built it. Brazilians arrive already fluent in Portuguese, which changes everything about how they settle.
Angolans99,050Now the second-largest nationality, ahead of India. Long-standing, family-based migration, not a recent wave.
Indians91,405The only top-five nationality that shrank in the year, down from 98,616. Alongside Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, South Asians form much of the labour backbone in agriculture, hospitality, construction and delivery.
Ukrainians84,889Still here under temporary protection from the EU's response to the war. Concentrated in Lisbon and Porto.
Cape Verdeans71,005Another long-established Portuguese-speaking community.

The nationalities buyers actually ask about

Americans. A small community with an outsized profile: 19,258 US citizens held residence at the end of 2024, up from 14,126 a year earlier. The mix is remote workers on the D8 digital nomad visa (Americans lead the 2,600-plus issued so far), retirees, and a post-pandemic lifestyle cohort.

Brits. They number 48,238, roughly triple the 2014 figure. The old stereotype was retired couples in Algarve villas. The new arrivals skew younger: working families on D-visas. The retirees are still there.

Italians, French, Germans and Spaniards all sit high in the ranking, moving under EU freedom of movement. No visa required.

Two Portugals

Foreign residents do not spread out. The four districts of Lisbon, Setúbal, Porto and Faro hold 70.3% of them. Zoom in and the map gets even tighter. At municipal level, Lisbon leads with 200,073 foreigners (30.4% of the municipality), followed by Sintra, Porto, Amadora and then Cascais: 53,683 foreign residents, fifth in the country.

70.3%of foreign residents live in four districts: Lisbon, Setúbal, Porto and Faro
200,073foreigners in the Lisbon municipality, 30.4% of its population
53,683foreign residents in Cascais, the fifth-largest municipal count in Portugal
34%foreigners in the Faro district in 2024, though the Algarve's foreign population shrank slightly in 2025

Odemira: the other immigration

Drive south of Lisbon into the Alentejo coast and the picture flips. In Odemira, 22,038 of 44,043 residents are foreigners, just over half: the first Portuguese municipality with a foreign majority. The engine is agricultural labour, largely South Asian.

Urban diversity and rural labour migration are two different immigrations. "Expat culture" means something different in each.

Who lives where

RegionWho clusters there
LisbonThe international, tech-centred crowd.
The AlgarveStill the highest foreign share in the country (34% of the Faro district in 2024), but its foreign population shrank slightly in 2025 even as the national total grew.
MadeiraIts digital nomad community.
The Silver Coast and the interiorValue seekers.
CascaisThe premium end of the Lisbon coast corridor.

The doors are narrowing

Which doors stay open shapes the whole mix, and several have closed or narrowed in the last few years.

Closed or narrowing. The Golden Visa property route ended in October 2023. The NHR tax regime ended in January 2024, replaced by a narrower scheme for research and tech roles. And in 2025 the easy CPLP route closed: Brazilians could once enter as tourists and regularise in-country. 66,000 did it in a single week in March 2023. Now the permit presupposes a consulate-issued visa, and arrivals expecting to regularise are turned away.

What is left.

RouteThe barThe terms
D8 digital nomad€3,680 a month gross, four times the minimum wage, from January 2026A two-year permit, renewable, with a path to citizenship after five years plus A2 Portuguese.
D7 passive income€920 a monthThe residence route for those living on passive income.
EU freedom of movementNoneNo visa required.

Enforcement has teeth now: 23,133 voluntary-departure notifications were issued in 2025, up from 446 the year before. The 2026 migrant is more likely to be a worker, a remote earner or a retiree with paperwork in order.

Arriving is easy. The paperwork is not.

English carries you through Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, and among younger Portuguese. But bureaucracy, healthcare and contracts run in Portuguese, and citizenship requires A2-level Portuguese.

The single most consistent expat complaint is the bureaucracy itself. AIMA replaced SEF in October 2023 and appointment backlogs persist, worst in Lisbon and Porto.

What actually pulls people here is not just cost. It is the slower pace, face-to-face social norms and community life. The honest counterpoint: Portuguese friendship circles can be slow to open, and most newcomers' social lives run through expat bubbles at first. That is normal, and it passes.

What this means for a buyer

For a buyer, the useful question is not how many expats there are, but which ones, and where. The Lisbon coast corridor, Cascais included, draws the international professional and the established remote worker: people with paperwork in order, buying for the life rather than the visa.

That is the clientele a buyer-side advisory is built for. It is also the part of Portugal's expat culture where local judgement matters most, because no number tells you which street, which building or which seller.

Sources

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