Portugal's foreign resident population rose from about 590,000 in 2019 to 1,544,000 in 2024, an increase of more than 160% in five years.

Omissions

• The 2024 figure (1,543,697) is a stock figure as of 31 December 2024 and was substantially boosted by the large-scale regularisation of pending residence files carried out in 2024 (a jump of ~48% in a single year from the ~1,044,000 recorded in 2023), so the five-year growth partly reflects administrative regularisation rather than only new inflows.
• The 2019 figure (590,348) is the SEF statistic for foreign citizens with legal resident status; the 2024 figure comes from AIMA, and the statistical basis/administrative source changed between the two years.
• The speaker's addendum 'sem contar com os ilegais' (not counting irregular migrants) is an unverifiable rhetorical qualifier; no official statistic counts undocumented residents.

Sources

• PrimaryAIMA — Relatório de Migrações e Asilo 2024A 31 de dezembro de 2024, Portugal registava 1.543.697 cidadãos estrangeiros.
• SecondaryAssembleia Municipal de Lisboa — Boletim (citing SEF)atingindo um aumento de 22,9% (590 348 cidadãos estrangeiros) em 2019