Where to live in Portugal
We track 5 cities in Portugal: Braga, Faro, Funchal, Lisbon and Porto. Average temperatures run from 15°C to 19°C. We estimate a couple needs €2,686 to €2,913 a month to live centrally. Portugal sits in our high tax tier. For citizens from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, long-term residency is comparatively open.
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- Tax tier
- High
- High personal income tax
- Languages
- Portuguese
- Some English
- Safety
- 70/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 72/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~150 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 5 cities we track
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Portugal sits in our high tax tier: high personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Comparatively open, for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Portugal offers genuinely accessible long-term residency through the D7 passive-income/sufficient-means visa, the D8 digital nomad visa, and the investment-based Golden Visa, each leading to permanent residency or citizenship after five years.
Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights here.
Bilateral arrangements make it easier for citizens of Angola, Brazil and Mozambique.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Portugal:
- Income: about $1,070 a month (Portugal D7 passive-income/sufficient-means visa, EUR 920/mo for a single applicant (indexed to the 2026 minimum wage); converted at EUR/USD 1.163; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $233k (Portugal Golden Visa cheapest route: EUR 200,000 cultural/heritage donation to a GEPAC-certified project in a low-density area (standard cultural donation EUR 250,000; investment fund EUR 500,000); converted at EUR/USD 1.163; as of June 2026)
For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).