Revised edition, 17 October 2026: figures checked against the official sources and data updated. See the revision notes.

01 · The community in numbers

Two official sources count Brazilians in Portugal, and they differ. Both agree that Brazilians are the largest foreign community.

AIMA counted 484,596 Brazilians at the end of 2024 and 493,622 at the end of 2025: 9,026 more, +1.9%. The community kept growing in 2025, but slowly. INE estimates that the number of foreign residents of all nationalities rose by 849,384 between 2021 and 2025.

Sources: AIMA, Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025 and 2024; INE, estimates of the resident population (22 June 2026), Brazilian figures as reported by PÚBLICO. AIMA counts valid residence documents; INE publishes a demographic estimate. We do not add or compare the two.

02 · Borders and enforcement in 2025

Brazilians were still the largest group refused entry in 2025, but their number halved. The 23,133 notifications to leave voluntarily were issued by AIMA, the PSP and the GNR; AIMA describes the figure as a break from the downward trend of previous years. A notification to leave is not a removal. Until 21 August 2025, AIMA took 91 coercive removal decisions and opened 298 administrative expulsion proceedings; after that date the competence passed to the PSP's new national foreigners and borders unit.

Sources: RASI 2025 (Annual Internal Security Report), as reported by PÚBLICO on 3 April 2026; AIMA, Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025, section 3.

03 · Voluntary return

In 2025, AIMA recorded 567 requests for voluntary-return support and 342 foreign nationals who received it: 236 through the IOM programme (ARVoRe IX) and 106 through the European Union Reintegration Programme. That is roughly 2 people per 10,000 foreign residents. IOM Portugal says Brazilians are the nationality that applies most to its programme; the figures published by the press for Brazilians differ between reports, so we do not quote one.

Sources: AIMA, Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025, section 3.3; IOM Portugal, as reported by DN Brasil.

04 · What the data do not show

• They do not show an exodus: AIMA's count of Brazilian residents grew in 2025, and supported voluntary returns are in the hundreds.
• They do not say why people leave or return. The cost of living (rents in particular) and the immigration rules changed over this period, but these figures do not measure their effect.
• AIMA's count refers to holders of valid residence documents, so it does not include people without them.
• Counts from different agencies are not comparable: administrative records (AIMA, PSP), demographic estimates (INE) and programme statistics (IOM) each measure something different.

05 · Planning checks

A move to another country is a big decision, and these are points we see families underestimate in our own conversations (this is our experience, not a statistic):

— Health needs (specialist access, chronic conditions) not checked against what is available in the chosen municipality.
— School expectations set by photographs rather than by visiting or comparing options.
— Cost of living estimated from national averages rather than from the municipality and the lifestyle.
— The property chosen first, with community, routine and distance from family fitted around it afterwards.

06 · Sources

AIMA — Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025 (residents at 31 December 2025; notifications to leave; coercive removals; voluntary return).
AIMA — Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2024 (residents at 31 December 2024).
INE — População residente atinge 11,4 milhões — 2025 (22 June 2026); Brazilian figures as reported by PÚBLICO, 22/06/2026.
RASI 2025 — as reported by PÚBLICO, 03/04/2026.
IOM Portugal — as reported by PÚBLICO, 24/01/2026.