Categories: Economy

Portugal's interior is depopulating

&amp;NewLine;<p>The figures leave no room for doubt&amp;comma; even after a second re-reading&amp;period; It's a sad truth&amp;comma; Portugal's interior is depopulating&amp;period; Portugal risks finding itself in a situation of no return and therefore&amp;comma; it would be very worrying not to remedy this&amp;comma; declared Fernandes de Matos during one of the analyses of the preliminary results of the 2021 census&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Portugal's interior is depopulating<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>The data published today by the Institut national de statistique &amp;lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ine&period;pt&sol;xportal&sol;xmain&quest;xpgid&equals;ine&lowbar;main&amp&semi;xpid&equals;ine" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">INE<&sol;a>&amp;rpar; indicate that&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;over the last decade between 2011 and 2021&amp;comma; Portugal has recorded a population decline of 2 &amp;percnt;&amp;period; This translates into an overpopulation of coastal cities and a concentration of population in the capital&amp;period; <&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>For the regional development researcher&amp;comma; professor at the University of Beira Interior Fernandes de Matos&amp;period; There is still time to&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;stop the process of depopulation in Portugal&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>This data confirms that public policies have not produced the expected results&amp;period; Regional policy in a way&amp;comma; aims to reduce asymmetries and what we have seen is that despite the millions that have been invested every year&amp;comma; these investments have not produced the results they were supposed to&amp;period; As a result, Portugal&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;s interior and very concretely the interior center&amp;comma; continues to be emptied, not to say emptied;have not produced the results they were supposed to&amp;period; so that Portugal's interior and, more specifically, the interior center&amp;comma; continues to empty out, not to say die&amp;comma; stressed Fernandes de Matos in statements to the Lusa&amp;period press agency;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>From the researcher's point of view&amp;comma; "the desertified interior and the overpopulated coastline are a de-economy"&amp;comma; with significant economic&amp;comma; social and environmental costs&amp;comma; so the solution must be to&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;reverse public policies&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>The scenario presented in the preliminary results of the 2021 census "is not encouraging" and for some areas in the country's interior&amp;comma; is a real debacle&amp;comma; said Fernandes de Matos&amp;period; He considers that the population is falling between 14 &amp;percnt; and 18 &amp;percnt; in some areas&amp;comma; as is the case in Almeida &amp;lpar;-18&amp;comma;8 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Celorico da Beira &amp;lpar;-14&amp;comma;4 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo &amp;lpar;-17&amp;comma;7 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Idanha-a-Nova &amp;lpar;-14&amp;comma;2 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Manteigas &amp;lpar;-15&amp;comma;2 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Potters &amp;lpar;-14&amp;comma;4 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Penamacor &amp;lpar;-16&amp;comma;2 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; Pinhel &amp;lpar;-15&amp;comma;9 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar; and Proença-a-Nova &amp;lpar;-14&amp;comma;0 &amp;percnt;&amp;rpar;&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Covilhã&amp;comma; university town saw its population drop by 10&amp;comma;3 &amp;percnt; over ten years&amp;comma; this&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;is a lot"&amp;comma; added the professor from the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;University of Beira Interior&amp;comma; explaining that&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;it has been difficult to retain people in the Beiras and Serra da Estrela sub-regions&amp;comma; also because&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;there is "a huge wave of young people going abroad"&amp;comma; who are qualified but can't find good working conditions to continue in Portugal&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In this sense&amp;comma; the researcher stated that Portugal has not been able to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;vivreauportugalconsulting&period;com&sol;le-portugal-na-pas-dargent-pour-paye&sol;" data-type&equals;"post" data-id&equals;"7765">monetize your resources<&sol;a>We believe that the solution lies in "creating income"&amp;comma; because "poorly paid work is not conducive to development"&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Public decision-makers as well as private investors&amp;comma; need to look at these data very carefully and once and for all&amp;comma; find a platform for dialogue&amp;comma; collaboration&amp;comma; to reverse these figures and quickly&amp;comma; because I would say that&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;it's not too late&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;" declared Fernandes de Matos&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Defending a "new cycle" of population concentration on the country's coast&amp;comma; the professor at Beira Interior University warned that the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;interior is "increasingly depleted of resources and demographic resources"&amp;comma; requiring a better articulation of regional development policy&amp;comma; whether national or European&amp;comma; and "a major public policy effort to relaunch the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;regional economy"&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Portugal today has a population of 10,347,892&amp;comma; 214,286 fewer than in 2011&amp;comma; according to the preliminary results of the 2021 census&amp;period; In census terms&amp;comma; the only decade in which there was a decline in population was between 1960 and 1970&amp;comma; indicated the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;INE&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;

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