SINTRA TO BECOME PORTUGAL'S LARGEST CITY
The city of seven hills, Lisbon, has lost one in five of its inhabitants in the space of a decade. Sintra, located northwest of the capital, seems to have been the main recipient and is set to dethrone Lisbon as the country’s most populous city within the next five years.
Latest data published by National Statistics (INE) has revealed that between 2001 and 2005, Lisbon lost 45,000 of its residents.
Oporto, currently Portugal’s second largest city is also losing inhabitants by the day, and by 2011 will have been surpassed by Vila Nova de Gaia, on the southern banks of the Douro, with the ‘Unconquered’ city becoming Portugal’s fourth largest city.
Estimates reveal that Sintra will be home to 479,000 inhabitants in 2011, eight thousand more than Lisbon. Vila Nova de Gaia will have a population of 320,000, whereas Oporto will only have 200,000 residents.
Porrtugal’s fifth largest city will be Loures (198,000), followed by Cascais (also 198,000), Seixal (187,000), Braga (182,000), Oeiras (178,000) and Gondomar (177,000).
The population drop in the capital is also the largest in Europe, with a reduction of 8.9 percent in inhabitants since the turn of the millennium.