Where did the Portuguese emigrate to in 2023? Switzerland leads the way

Around 70,000 Portuguese people left the country in 2023, a number that remained stable compared to the previous year, mainly heading to Switzerland, according to a report released this Saturday.

“It is estimated that 70,000 Portuguese will have left in 2023, the same number as in 2022, thus continuing the recovery of Portuguese emigration to levels close to those seen in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic,” reads the Portuguese Emigration 2024 report, with data referring to the previous year.

According to the document, prepared by the Emigration Observatory and Migra Network, the Center for Research and Studies in Sociology and ISCTE — University Institute of Lisbon, a full recovery was not achieved only because emigration to the United Kingdom fell by more than 40%, maintaining the downward trajectory that began with Brexit (the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union) and to France fell by 25%.

Still, Portuguese emigration is higher than pre-Covid levels in most of its main destinations.

In 2023, Switzerland was once again the main destination country for the Portuguese, with 12,652 entries, followed by Spain, with 11,554.

Also noteworthy are countries such as France (7,426), Germany (6,375), the Netherlands (now the Netherlands) (4,892), the United Kingdom (4,414), Belgium (3,857) and Luxembourg (3,638).

Denmark (1,818), Mozambique (1,439) and Canada (1,005) follow.

With less than 1,000 entries, destinations such as the USA (890), Austria (778), Norway (709), Italy (702), Sweden (688), Brazil (547), Venezuela (532), Ireland (426) and Angola (381) appear.

At the bottom of the table are Australia (91) and Macau (53).

"Although it has lost relative importance over the years, the impact of these flows on destination countries continues to be significant. In Luxembourg, for example, the Portuguese represented around 13.5% of total immigrant arrivals, while in Macau the figure was 6% and in Switzerland 5.2%," he detailed.

In 2023, Portuguese emigrants continued to be predominantly men of working age. However, some countries have a higher feminization rate, such as the United Kingdom (50.5%), France (50.4%), and Australia (46.2%).

The USA was the country where there was the greatest increase in the number of emigrants acquiring nationality, with 1,1896 processes, 21.9% more than in 2022.