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Without an EU passport, a move to Portugal starts with a visa or residence permit. Move Me To EU, Karte Global's visa and relocation service, compares the visa routes open to Americans in Portugal and across the EU.
Have a parent or grandparent from Germany, Italy, Ireland or Poland? You may have a claim to EU citizenship by descent, which carries the right to live in Portugal. A 30-minute screening call tells you whether a closer look is worthwhile.
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Best places to live in Portugal with every factor weighted equally
The ranking at the top of this page starts with all 13 factors at the same weight. On that footing, these 15 of the 70 places score highest; the number beside each is its match score out of 100. Treat the list as a starting point, not a verdict: raise the factors you care about and the order changes. Select a place to open its full breakdown.
- 1(Lisbon)86Strongest on international community (100), healthcare (100) and airport access (100). Weakest on housing cost (0). International community: 24.8% of residents are foreign nationals with legal resident status, 2023 (Portuguese average 9.3%).
- 277Strongest on healthcare (100), restaurants and bars (100) and walkability (100). Weakest on housing cost (8). Healthcare: 29 hospital sites within 15 km.
- 371Strongest on healthcare (100), airport access (100) and walkability (100). Weakest on housing cost (11). Healthcare: 31 hospital sites within 15 km.
- 470Strongest on international schools (100), healthcare (97) and walkability (87). Weakest on housing cost (28). International schools: 21 within 25 km.
- 570Strongest on long-distance trains (100), restaurants and bars (100) and cultural scene (100). Weakest on housing cost (0). Long-distance trains: 36 Alfa Pendular and Intercidades departures a day (main station Porto Campanha). Lisbon 2 h 42 min, Coimbra 1 h 01 min, Braga 39 min, Faro 6 h 30 min.
- 669Strongest on healthcare (100), airport access (100) and international schools (100). Weakest on bike friendliness (10). Healthcare: 29 hospital sites within 15 km.
- 768Strongest on international schools (100), healthcare (95) and airport access (91). Weakest on housing cost (0). International schools: 29 within 25 km.
- 867Strongest on airport access (100), international schools (100) and healthcare (98). Weakest on housing cost (24). Airport access: 4 min by public transport to Lisbon Humberto Delgado.
- 965Strongest on international schools (100), walkability (94) and access to nature (91). Weakest on housing cost (0). International schools: 24 within 25 km.
- 1065Strongest on international schools (100), access to nature (98) and airport access (92). Weakest on housing cost (30). International schools: 27 within 25 km.
- 1164Strongest on international schools (100), healthcare (97) and airport access (90). Weakest on bike friendliness (24). International schools: 22 within 25 km.
- 1264Strongest on access to nature (99), restaurants and bars (96) and walkability (90). Weakest on housing cost (32). Access to nature: 30.3% of the land within 1 km of homes is park, forest or open nature. Citywide: 68.1%.
- 1364Strongest on long-distance trains (100), airport access (91) and healthcare (90). Weakest on international community (19). Long-distance trains: 36 Alfa Pendular and Intercidades departures a day (main station Vila Nova de Gaia - Devesas). Lisbon 2 h 37 min, Porto 5 min, Coimbra 56 min, Braga 46 min, Faro 6 h 25 min.
- 1463Strongest on cultural scene (100), restaurants and bars (90) and safety (84). Weakest on healthcare (34). Cultural scene: the average resident has 20.9 museums, theatres, cinemas and galleries within 3 km.
- 1562Strongest on international schools (100), walkability (95) and restaurants and bars (86). Weakest on long-distance trains (18). International schools: 18 within 25 km.
Best places in Portugal by priority
Each starting point is a preset in the tool above. It raises the factors named and lowers a few others. The five highest-scoring places under each:
Family raises safety and international schools to 5, and access to nature and healthcare to 4.
- Lisboa (Lisbon), Grande Lisboa: 84
- Almada, Península de Setúbal: 81
- Odivelas, Grande Lisboa: 81
- Amadora, Grande Lisboa: 80
- Barreiro, Península de Setúbal: 76
Budget first raises housing cost to 5, and safety, bike friendliness, healthcare, long-distance trains, public transit and walkability to 4.
- Lisboa (Lisbon), Grande Lisboa: 70
- Gondomar, Norte: 67
- Ovar, Centro: 66
- Almada, Península de Setúbal: 64
- Aveiro, Centro: 63
Car-free raises bike friendliness, public transit and walkability to 5, and long-distance trains to 4.
- Lisboa (Lisbon), Grande Lisboa: 89
- Porto, Norte: 79
- Almada, Península de Setúbal: 75
- Amadora, Grande Lisboa: 65
- Barreiro, Península de Setúbal: 65
Frequent flyer raises long-distance trains and airport access to 5, and international community, restaurants and bars and cultural scene to 4.
- Lisboa (Lisbon), Grande Lisboa: 97
- Porto, Norte: 88
- Almada, Península de Setúbal: 81
- Loures, Grande Lisboa: 75
- Vila Nova de Gaia, Norte: 75
Questions about where to live in Portugal
What is the best place to live in Portugal?
It depends on what you need from a place, which is why the Portugal City Finder re-ranks as you set your priorities. With all 13 factors weighted equally, Lisboa (Lisbon), Almada and Amadora score highest of the 70 places compared. Change the starting point and the answer changes: Family puts Lisboa (Lisbon) first, Budget first puts Lisboa (Lisbon) first, Car-free puts Lisboa (Lisbon) first and Frequent flyer puts Lisboa (Lisbon) first.
What are the best places to live in Portugal for families?
The Family starting point raises safety and international schools to 5, and access to nature and healthcare to 4. With it, Lisboa (Lisbon), Almada, Odivelas, Amadora and Barreiro score highest.
Which places in Portugal are easiest to live in without a car?
The Car-free starting point raises bike friendliness, public transit and walkability to 5, and long-distance trains to 4. With it, Lisboa (Lisbon), Porto, Almada, Amadora and Barreiro score highest.
Where is housing most affordable in Portugal?
On the housing cost factor, the highest scores go to Felgueiras, Amarante, Marco de Canaveses, Fafe and Lousada. Felgueiras: Median rent €4.28 per m² a month on new leases in 2025 (Portuguese median €9.29).
Which places in Portugal score highest for safety?
On the safety factor, the highest scores go to Barcelos, Pombal, Odivelas, Guimarães and Vila Nova de Famalicão. Barcelos: 341 violent crimes and 684 property crimes per 100,000 residents (Portuguese average 563 and 1,557). The safety score is built from official crime figures. A low score means more recorded crime than other places on this list, not that a place is unsafe; How the scores work explains the measure.
Where does the data come from?
The Portugal City Finder compares 70 places on 13 factors using official statistics and open data. The figure behind every score is shown beside it, and each source is listed under How the scores work and at the foot of this page. The methodology sets out how every city finder turns figures into scores.
Does the City Finder tell me whether I can move to Portugal?
No. It is an informational research tool that compares places using general statistics. It does not assess eligibility for any visa, residence permit or citizenship, and nothing in it is legal, immigration, tax or financial advice. For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU.
About the Portugal City Finder
The Portugal City Finder compares 70 places across Portugal on 13 factors: housing cost, safety, bike friendliness, access to nature, international community, healthcare, long-distance trains, airport access, public transit, restaurants and bars, cultural scene, walkability and international schools. Every factor starts at the same weight. Raise the ones you care about, lower or switch off the ones you don't, and the ranking and map re-sort as you go. You can shortlist places, compare them side by side, and copy a link that reopens your exact setup. Lisboa, Porto, Cascais, Braga and Coimbra open up into their neighborhoods.
It is built for Americans weighing a move to Portugal, whether through citizenship by descent, a visa or another route, who want to turn a long list of places into a shortlist worth visiting. Lisboa (Lisbon), Sintra and Vila Nova de Gaia are on the list, and so are smaller places that rarely make the usual rankings. Scores are built from official statistics and open data, the figure behind each score is shown next to it, and the sources are listed at the foot of this page. The methodology explains how a figure becomes a score.
For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU, Karte Global's visa and relocation practice. Considering more than one country? Browse every city finder, or compare places across the whole EU on one scale in the EU City Finder.
How the scores work
Each figure is turned into a 0 to 100 score. Most factors are scored half by comparison and half on a fixed scale. The comparison half ranks the places against each other: the weakest twentieth score 0 and the strongest twentieth score 100. The fixed half measures each place from zero up to the level of the strongest, so a city is not marked zero merely for coming last on a list of good options. Housing cost and journey times have no natural zero and are scored by comparison only. Public transit is already a percentage of residents and is used as it stands, and cycling is scored on a fixed scale (see the table). Safety has its own scale, described below and in the table.
Cities are compared with the other cities on this list. Neighborhoods are compared only with other neighborhoods of the same city, so a neighborhood score of 80 in Braga and 80 in Lisbon are not the same thing. A score is a comparison, not a grade, and the figure behind every score is shown next to it.
Your overall match is not a flat average. Weights are squared, so a factor at 5 counts nearly three times as much as one at 3. The result is stretched so that strong matches separate from middling ones. A place that excels on something you rated 4 or 5 earns a small bonus, shown as "strong fit"; one that does badly on it takes a penalty, shown as "weak fit". Where a place has no figure for a factor, that factor is left out of its match and the others carry the weight.
Badges: Measured a published official statistic or survey result. Derived calculated by us from published data. Editorial written or judged by us: only the short descriptive notes, which never affect a score. Planned not in the score yet.
Reading the safety score. Violent crime counts twice as much as property crime. Half of the score ranks the places on this list against each other, so the places with the most recorded violence and property crime get little for that half however safe they are by international standards. The other half is absolute, on a fixed scale that does not depend on the other places: no recorded crime would score 100, and the Portuguese average scores 76. A low score means "more recorded crime than other Portuguese places", not "unsafe". Across Portugal the police recorded 563 violent crimes and 1,557 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2025. Portugal does not publish home burglary by municipality, so the property half counts all recorded property crime (thefts of every kind, burglary, vandalism and fraud against property), less street robbery, which is already in the violent half. That makes busy shopping and tourist centres look worse than quiet residential towns. Crime is counted where it happens, so places that draw commuters, visitors and nightlife record more per resident than quieter ones. The figure behind each score is shown so you can judge the gap for yourself.
Reading the train and airport figures. Train counts and journey times come from the published timetables for one ordinary Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Engineering works and seasonal changes move these figures, most of all for smaller stations. Treat these two factors as a snapshot of this season, and check a route you would rely on. Madeira and the Azores have no railway, so their places show no train figure.
Neighborhood view uses the parishes (freguesias) of Lisbon, Porto, Cascais, Braga and Coimbra as INE's 2021 census draws them, the geography the statistics use. Some are unions of older parishes, merged in 2013, and carry the union's name. It uses only the factors that can be measured inside a city. Safety is not scored for neighborhoods: crime is not published below the municipality.