The study, “Young people in Portugal: A portrait from the Census”, was presented at the National Statistics Institute (INE), in Lisbon, along with six others on families in Portugal.

One of the researchers in charge of the Quality of Life Research Centre at the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém pointed out that "it is already common knowledge" that the demographic decline of recent decades, together with the financial (2008) and public health crises (2020, Covid-19 pandemic), contributed to "the decline of the young population".

"The young population, between 15 and 34 years old, went from a quarter of the population in 2011 to around a fifth in 2021, and this decline is not homogeneous and is even more noticeable in the age groups of young adults, between 25 and 29 years old and between 30 and 34 years old", said Tatiana Ferreira.

However, in contrast, there is an increase in the number of young foreigners, which, in the overall young population, increased by 23.4% between 2011 and 2021, while the Portuguese young population decreased by 17.5%.

The age group in which this was most significant was between 25 and 29 years old, with a 36% increase in young foreigners, while the number of young Portuguese fell by 21.2%.

The sharpest drop in young Portuguese people was recorded in the age group between 30 and 34 years old, with a decrease of 31.3%, while among young foreigners there was an increase of 27.6%.

In terms of countries of origin, INE data shows that, in ten years, there has been a 243.4% increase in young people from Asian countries, although Brazilians continue to be the dominant nationality, with 40.9%, in 2021.

The researcher added that Census data show that the percentage of young people between the ages of 15 and 19 who are studying has increased from 83.9% (2011) to 90.4% (2021) and that girls are predominant.

On the other hand, the percentage of active young people has decreased from 66.3% (2011) to 58.1% (2021), and among the group of active young people in 2021, 51.3% were employed, while 6.8% were unemployed.

According to Tatiana Ferreira, when analysing the livelihoods of young people, there was a decrease, from 54.9% to 50.5%, of those who live off their income from work, while there was an increase, from 34.7% to 38.4%, of those who live as family support.

Regarding the distribution of the young population, the researcher said that almost half live in urban areas, mainly in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, with Alentejo appearing as the region in the country with the fewest young people.

“Young people are an increasingly rare commodity”, she considered.