In 2024:

• The proportion of elderly people (population aged 65 and over) was 24.3%. In 1970 it was 9.7%. It is projected that in 2100 it will be 37.3%.

• The population ageing ratio was 192.4 (in 1991, it was 72.1), affecting mainly the female population and the municipalities in the inner mainland.

• 55.8% of the elderly population reported having some limitation in performing activities considered usual for their age due to long-standing health problems (in women, this proportion was 61.1%).

In 2023, the life expectancy at age 65 was 22.7 years for women and 19.2 years for men, with the adjustment for limitations due to ill health decreasing healthy life expectancy by 15 years at age 65 for women and by 10 years for men.

The at-risk-of-poverty rate of the elderly after social transfers has been higher than that observed for the general population since 2017; in 2024, it was 21.1% for the elderly population and 16.6% for the general population. This condition affected more than a third of the elderly living alone.

In 2024, the financial inability to keep the house adequately warm was higher in Portugal than in the European Union, with this divergence being more significant for households consisting of one elderly person or two adults in which at least one was elderly, especially when living in poverty.

In 2023, 46.5% of old-age pensioners who continued to work at the time of the transition to retirement did so for financial reasons.