Social trends, demographics, and community issues in modern Portugal.
The government says about 94% of people on benefits will get the same or more once Portugal merges 13 social payments into the new Prestação Social Única. Unions dispute the figure, citing claimants set to lose up to €188 a month. Practical effects begin on 31 December.
Portugal cut road deaths by just 0.7% over the past decade while the EU average fell around 20%, a new European report finds, leaving the country well off its 2030 target.
The National Health Institute links three 2026 heat episodes — 16 June, 2–8 July and 23 July — to about 680 more deaths than expected, most among people aged 75 and over. Officials say public warnings and precautions kept the toll below what forecasting models had predicted.
First-phase applications to Portugal's universities and polytechnics passed 55,000 — above all of last year's first phase — as the window closes Thursday. A troubled switch to digital marking of some 300,000 national-exam scripts delayed grades and triggered more than 20,000 appeals.
The PSP and GNR registered 7,871 reports of domestic violence between April and June — about 86 a day and up 13.3% on the previous quarter — with seven people killed, according to CIG data.
The DGS added 155 rare diseases to its national coding system in 2025 — the biggest annual jump yet — bringing the registry to 594 recognised conditions and widening the safety net for patients.
Ana Paula Martins says she may consider a fee — backed by the national ethics council — for discharged patients who reject an available continuing-care place and stay in hospital. Care providers counter that the real problem is a shortage of beds.
