Living in Portugal, the Perspective of Foreign Residents

The InterNations platform is a global network of foreign residents (expatriates) with more than 4 million members. In addition to support for those who want to settle in another country, it provides information through its expatriate members, in more than 420 cities worldwide. It therefore includes what foreign residents in Portugal think and the experience of how to live in Portugal.

An analysis is presented of the various countries where they go to live or work, according to their respective experience.

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What Foreign Residents Say About Living in Portugal

To provide information on the degree of satisfaction and how they feel in the places where they have settled, expatriates are interviewed and this information is compiled and provided on the platform.

One of the indicators that InterNations provides is the Accommodation Facility Index, that is, how the foreign resident is integrated in this new environment.

For this there is a questionnaire, in which the interviewees have to classify several factors that fall into four categories. These categories, friendliness of the local population, feeling at home in the local culture, the ease of finding friends and the local language, are finally included in an index that is called the Ease of Accommodation Index.

For the results to be reliable, InterNations considers that a country can only be eligible to enter this ranking if there are more than 75 inquiries answered.

The latest index available is that of the 2019 Expat Insider Report, which includes 64 countries.

Portugal ranks fourth in the Accommodation Facility Index.

The top three are Mexico, Bahrain and Malaysia.

In 2019 there are only 2 European countries, in this top 15. Ireland was in 13th place in 2018, but it disappeared from this group, as well as Romania, which was in 7th position in 2016.

With the exception of 2016, Portugal has been between the 5th and the 4th place, in this index of ease of accommodation.

In the quality perceived by foreign residents living in Portugal, there are two categories that contribute strongly to this position:

• The friendliness of people and
• The way these expatriates feel welcome, as if they were at home.

European countries in the top 15 where expatriates feel best

In addition to Portugal, the only European country in the top 15 is Spain, whose rankings have the following evolution:

The language is the category in which Spain, in the 13th position, has an advantage over Portugal, which in this category is in the 21st position.

We can think that to live in Portugal and be happy, what the Portuguese soul is, the friendliness, the way we welcome people and even make friends is well understood and appreciated by foreign residents.

Our language is difficult, but we cannot change it, it is also part of our soul. We try to help people, speaking their language, most of the time in English, French or even Castilian. But, nothing better than also understanding Portuguese and learning has actually increased.

The Last in the Ranking, in the Foreign Residents Classification

In the last places in the ranking of European Countries, there are Denmark (63) and Austria (62) who remain in the same positions consistently between 2015 and 2019.

Germany has been at the bottom of this accommodation facility index.

Ireland stands out for having had the worst ranking in 2019 since 2015. It went down ten places, from 17th in 2018 to 27th in 2019. Two categories mark this fall in particular: foreign residents feeling at home in the culture and make new friends. The report focuses on a Canadian resident's lament "the locals (Irish) interact with sympathy but will never be your friends".

Who are the ones living in Portugal

In 2019, the total number of foreign residents living in Portugal increased by 23%.

A significant increase.

39% come from Europe, 17% from the African continent, the majority from Cape Verde and Angola, 29% from America, with relevance from Brazil and 15% from Asia, in particular from China.

See too

• Well-being and quality of life index
• Evolution of the Human Development Index in Portugal
• Human development index in Portugal
• Evolution of the well-being index in Portugal
• Online access to the National Health Service SNS

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