Where to Live in Portugal: Regions and Cities for Americans, Britons

No official page tells a newcomer where to live, and this guide does not either. It sets out what Statistics Portugal (INE) and AIMA publish about each region and city: how many people live there, how many are foreign nationals, and what new leases cost, so that you can compare places on dated figures.

We read the pages on 18 October 2026. The most recent figure here is the INE release on rents of 29 September 2026 (second quarter of 2026), so that is the date of this guide’s information. The census figures are from 2021 and the AIMA figures from 31 December 2025. This is not advice on where to settle; for the step after you choose, see our guide to the first year in Portugal.

How many people live in each region, and how many are foreign?

INE’s census tables for 2021 use the 2024 version of its regional classification. In it, mainland Portugal has Norte, Centro, Oeste e Vale do Tejo, Grande Lisboa, Península de Setúbal, Alentejo and Algarve, and the two autonomous regions, the Azores and Madeira, are the other two. The nine together add up to the national total of 10,343,066 residents.

The percentages are INE’s own “proportion of the resident population of foreign nationality”. Read them as a description of 2021, not of today: AIMA’s later count below is far larger.

How many Americans and Britons did the census count?

The same INE table gives residents by individual nationality. For the United States and the United Kingdom, it counted the following in 2021.

These are the 2021 census figures; the AIMA count further down is for the end of 2025 and is much larger.

Which cities and towns do the figures cover?

The INE census table also has a line for each municipality (concelho). Below are the municipalities of the largest cities and a few Algarve towns, with their 2021 residents, INE’s foreign share and the number of United Kingdom and United States nationals counted. We chose these to show the range, not to rank them.

Where does AIMA say foreigners with residence status are?

AIMA’s Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025 says that on 31 December 2025 “Portugal registava 1.585.854 cidadãos estrangeiros residentes”. It defines the foreign resident population as foreigners with valid residence titles, those with regularization processes in progress and those covered by authorizations under specific legal instruments. It also says the population is concentrated on the coast, “particularmente nos distritos de Lisboa, Setúbal, Faro e Porto”, which together have 1,114,402 residents, 70.3% of the national total.

The report’s district table gives these counts.

The same report lists 21,293 residents of United States nationality and 47,726 under the line “Reino Unido” at the end of 2025; AIMA lists a further 113 under “Grã-Bretanha (British Subject)”. It does not break those two numbers down by district in the pages we read. AIMA reports by district and INE by region and municipality, so these tables are not set side by side.

What do new leases cost in each region and city?

INE’s “Estatísticas de Rendas da Habitação ao nível local” gives the median rent of new leases of family dwellings, in euros per square meter. INE says the median is the value that splits the ordered rents into two equal halves. The quarterly release of 29 September 2026 covers the second quarter of 2026: 35,407 new leases and a national median of 10.17 euros per square meter, 10.2% above the same quarter of 2025.

INE publishes quarterly figures by NUTS III sub-region. In that release the sub-regions with medians above the national one are the five below, and a few lower ones are added for contrast.

For municipalities, INE’s quarterly release covers only those with more than 100,000 residents, and it adds a twelve month figure for every municipality. Over the 12 months ending June 2026, INE says the national median was 9.76 euros per square meter across 151,181 leases, and Lisboa had the highest municipal value at 17.43. In INE’s spreadsheet, the same twelve month figure reads as follows for some municipalities.

INE warns that the twelve month results are not directly comparable with the quarterly ones, and shows its results only for areas with at least 33 observations. A median per square meter is not the rent of a given home: it does not say what a one bedroom or a family house costs. For how to rent, see our guide to renting a home as an American or a Briton. For buying instead, see buying a property as a foreigner.

What does the choice of place change in practice?

AIMA serves the public at its stores. AIMA’s stores page says it has 35 stores across the country and lists, among others, stores in Lisboa (two), Porto (two), Faro, Albufeira, Portimão, Tavira, Cascais, Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Setúbal, Funchal, Ponta Delgada and Aveiro, with opening hours that differ from one store to another. Check the store’s own entry on that page before you plan a trip.

The step-by-step process is in our guide to the AIMA residence permit process, and the order of the first tasks is in the first month paperwork guide. Public health care is covered in our guide to healthcare access for newcomers. The residence routes themselves, which decide whether you qualify, are in the residence routes guide.

We could not read the gov.pt service page on the certificate of residence (atestado de residência) from the junta de freguesia on 18 October 2026, because the portal was down for scheduled maintenance, so this guide says nothing about that certificate or its rules.

More guides on this site: cost of living from official figures; proving your address in Portugal.

What did we read, and what did we not?

We read, on 18 October 2026: INE’s census table of resident population by nationality (indicator 0012294, last updated by INE on 19 March 2024) and its table of the proportion of foreign residents (0012314, last updated 19 March 2024); AIMA’s Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2025; INE’s release “Estatísticas de Rendas da Habitação ao nível local, 2.º trimestre de 2026” of 29 September 2026, with its PDF and spreadsheet; and the AIMA stores page.

We did not find an official page that rates regions or cities, and we did not use one for climate, safety or lifestyle. The census values were read through INE’s public data interface (the indicators above), not in the portal’s table display. Municipal rents for towns with few leases are not shown by INE and are left out here.