Cost of Living in Portugal: Official Figures for Americans, Britons

There is no single official cost of living figure for Portugal. Statistics Portugal (INE) publishes the average spending of households, the median rent of new leases and the inflation rate, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes the minimum wage it uses to judge the means of subsistence for a visa.

This guide sets those figures side by side. It gives official statistics, not an individual budget: your own costs depend on where you live, your household and your habits, and we do not estimate them. We read each page on 18 October 2026. The most recent publication among them is INE’s consumer price release of 13 October 2026, so 13 October 2026 is the date of this guide’s latest information; the other figures date from 2022/2023 (spending), 29 September 2026 (rents) and the ministry’s 2026 minimum wage.

What do households in Portugal spend in a year?

INE’s Household Budget Survey 2022/2023, final results published on 19 June 2024, says the mean annual household expenditure was 23,900 euros. Housing accounted for 39.3% (9,390 euros a year), food for 12.9% (3,091 euros) and transport for 12.1% (2,888 euros), “about 2/3” of the total together.

Source for the first three columns: INE, Household Budget Survey 2022/2023. The last column is our arithmetic, a division of the printed yearly figure by 12.

Three points from the same release matter when you read these numbers. First, they are means for all households living in Portugal, of every size and income, not for newcomers. Second, INE says households with dependent children spend on average 9,731 euros more a year than households without, which it puts at 811 euros more per month. Third, the survey covers 2022/2023: prices have moved since, as the inflation section shows.

Does spending differ by region?

Yes. INE gives mean annual expenditure of 26,891 euros in the Lisbon metropolitan area, 24,432 euros in the Algarve, 22,222 euros in the Centro region and 21,359 euros in the Alentejo, against the national 23,900. The lowest was the Azores at 19,431 euros. INE also gives 23,245 euros for Norte and 22,605 euros for Madeira. Those are regional means of all households. INE says housing takes 43.8% of spending in the Lisbon metropolitan area and 33.4% in the Alentejo, against 39.3% nationally.

For choosing an area, our guide to renting a home in Portugal covers the lease and the documents.

What do new rental leases cost, according to INE?

INE’s release “House rental statistics at local level” of 29 September 2026 gives, for the second quarter of 2026, a median rent of 10.17 euros per square meter across 35,407 new lease agreements in Portugal. That is 10.2% higher than a year earlier and compares with 9.1% growth in the first quarter. INE’s figure is the median rental value of new lease agreements.

Source: INE, House rental statistics at local level, 2nd quarter 2026. The release names these as the five highest sub-regions and Lisboa as the highest municipality among the 24 with more than 100 thousand inhabitants.

Two limits. This is the rent on new leases, which is not what every existing tenant pays, and the figure is per square meter, so the rent of a home depends on its floor area, which the release does not translate for you. The rental contract, deposit and fees are covered in our renting guide.

How fast are prices rising?

INE’s consumer price index release of 13 October 2026 says the annual rate was 3.6% in September 2026, against 3.3% in August, “mostly explained by the increase in the prices of fuels”. The annual rate for energy products was 15.3%, and for unprocessed food 3.7%. The annual core rate, which excludes energy and unprocessed food, was 2.7%. The 12-month average rate was 2.8%.

An annual rate compares prices with the same month a year earlier. A rate of 3.6% does not tell you what your own basket costs, which depends on what you buy. The 2022/2023 spending figures above are therefore older than the prices today.

What income does the visa ask me to show?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that proof of sufficient means of subsistence is a mandatory requirement for a long-term stay visa. It measures them against the guaranteed minimum monthly wage, which the Portuguese version of its page gives as 920 euros in 2026 (Decreto-Lei 139/2025 of 29 December), “líquida de quotizações para a segurança social”, with a weight for each member of the household: the first adult 100%, a second and further adults 50%, and children under 18 and dependent adult children 30%.

For example, applying the weights to 920 gives 920 + 460 = 1,380 euros for two adults and 1,380 + 276 = 1,656 euros for two adults and one child. These sums are ours, not figures printed by the ministry, and the page says the minimum wage is taken net of social security contributions. The English page of the ministry carries the same method; it calls the legal text a “PCM Regulatory Decree”, whereas the Portuguese page says Decreto-Lei, and we follow the Portuguese page.

The documents the visa needs, and how the means are proved, depend on the visa. Our guides to the retirement and passive income visa (D7), the remote work visa (D8) and how to choose between D7 and D8 go through each.

Is the visa reference the same as a monthly budget?

No page we read says so. The 920 euros is the minimum monthly wage used as a measuring stick for the visa, and INE’s 1,991.67 euros a month (our division) is a mean over all households of every size. They answer different questions, and no official page we read links them. The ministry calls the first a criterion to determine means of subsistence; INE calls the second a mean expenditure.

For the first year after arrival, once the visa is granted, see our settling-in guide for Americans and Britons, and for health costs see health care access for newcomers.

More guides on this site: proving funds for the visa.

What do these pages not tell you?

They do not give a budget for one person, a rent for a given neighborhood, the price of utilities, health insurance or schooling, or any split by nationality. We did not use Banco de Portugal or the energy regulator ERSE for this guide, and the INE pages we read are summaries; the tables behind them are on ine.pt. Where we needed a figure and could not read an official page, we left it out.

Two of the costs in the household figures have their own guides: setting up electricity, gas and water and buying and registering a car. If you move with children, see enrolling a child in school.

Official pages read for this guide, all on 18 October 2026: INE’s Household Budget Survey 2022/2023 press release and PDF (19 June 2024), INE’s House rental statistics at local level for the second quarter of 2026 (29 September 2026), INE’s Consumer price index release for September 2026 (13 October 2026), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ page on means of subsistence for national visas (Portuguese and English). Not legal or financial advice.