In this last revision of the estimates on international migration, not only were new values calculated for 2019, but also the values of the entire series released between 1990 and 2015 were significantly changed, and the values for 2017 were eliminated. This change raises questions about the reliability of the data and should be read with caution given the sharp growth of Portuguese in the American continent, and the decrease in the European and African continents; these values are not supported by the data collection institutes in the destination countries and very different from the series that have been presented by the United Nations. These revisions hamper a more detailed analysis of the changes over the period considered and are not always due to changes in population movements, but rather in the recording and estimation of these movements.

Link https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIG

Cite as Vidigal, Inês (2019), “Portuguese emigrants are more than two and a half million”, Observatório da Emigração. http://observatorioemigracao.pt/np4EN/7118.html