Social trends, demographics, and community issues in modern Portugal.
A baby girl was born in a firefighters' ambulance on the A9 on Monday, unable to reach a maternity ward because the nearest one had closed. INEM says ambulance births in Portugal rose from 28 in 2024 to 60 in 2025 as obstetric emergencies concentrate into fewer, larger units.
A magnitude 3.4 earthquake struck about 18 km east of Odemira at 03:08 on Monday, felt across the Beja and Setúbal districts at intensity IV–V but causing no injuries or damage, according to IPMA, which also logged a smaller, unfelt tremor off Cape St Vincent.
The Júri Nacional de Exames received about 21,000 exam re-grade requests this year — roughly triple the norm — overwhelming a marking system slowed by digital exams and delaying the ficha ENES that students need to apply to university within a three-day window.
Portugal sees its first total solar eclipse since 1912 on Wednesday, 12 August — total only from the uplands near Bragança and partial elsewhere, with about 94% of the Sun covered in Lisbon. Health officials are urging ISO 12312-2 certified glasses, warning that around one in five eye injuries can b
The latest recruitment competition for PSP officers drew 2,945 applicants, 447 fewer than the previous edition — a 13% drop that lands just as an ageing force braces for some 900 retirements this year, with unions blaming low pay and poor conditions.
Portugal saw more weddings in 2025 than in any year since 2010, the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE, Statistics Portugal) has reported — a modest but clear rebound that public broadcaster RTP flagged at the weekend as a “record.”...
Portuguese pensioners resident in Belgium, Canada, Cape Verde, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland must file a mandatory Prova de Vida (proof-of-life) declaration by 15 September 2026 or see payments suspended from November. Social Security says a digital biometric check now needs on
