ZAP // Darwinius / Wikimedia; Rawpixel
Portugal is the second country in the European Union where housing prices have risen the most since 2020 and is also among the Member States with the lowest purchasing power.
Portugal may even be among the countries with the highest economic growth and where, since 2015, salaries have risen above average. However, this is of little use to the Portuguese, who, among Europeans, are among those who have lower purchasing power and face a greater rise in housing.
This information is contained in an interactive platform, launched this Monday by Pordata, which, based on statistical data from Eurostat, provides a comparative portrait of the 27 Member States of the European Union based on four themes: population, economy, cost of living and income, energy and environment.
According to these data, although Portugal has a cost of living below the European average – it is only the 17th country in the EU where the basket of essential goods is cheaper -, the purchasing power of the population is also the sixth lowest among the 27.
According to Pordata’s calculations, the average annual income in Portugal in 2023 (1,053.9 euros) would allow purchasing the equivalent of 11 baskets of essential goods, well below the 24 baskets that a Luxembourger would be able to pay for with their average income.
In addition to having one of the lowest purchasing powers, Portugal is the second EU country with the biggest increase in house prices (24.1%)only surpassed by Greece (29%).
“It was in Finland that the biggest reduction was recorded: in 2024, houses cost 16.3% less than in 2020”, says Pordata, which adds that the cost of housing increased in 16 of the 27 EU countries.
At the macroeconomic level, Pordata indicates that the labor productivity in Portugal is the 19th lowest at European level: each worker contributed around 47,700 euros to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024, well below the 194,400 euros in Ireland.
However, Portugal is also among the countries with greater economic growth: between 2020 and 2024, says Pordata, national GDP per capita grew 40% in nominal value and 10% in real value — the sixth highest growth in the entire EU.
With regard to climate statistics, Portugal is the third European country that emits the least greenhouse gas emissions (4.8 tons per inhabitant), but it is the seventh that recycles urban waste least: has a recycling rate of 30.7%, less than half that of countries like Germany (68.7%) or Austria (62.8%).
