Despite the progressive spread of the pandemic throughout the national territory, its impact continues to be characterised by high regional heterogeneity, particularly when taking into account, in addition to the absolute numbers of confirmed cases and deaths, relative indicators according to the size and population density per km2 of the territorial units considered in this analysis. Taking the municipality as a reference unit and the confirmed cases of COVID-19 available on May 20 (2 weeks more than in the previous press release on the same theme), it can be seen that:
• In Portugal, for every 10,000 inhabitants there were 29.1 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 disease per 10 thousand inhabitants was above the national value in 53 municipalities and of this group, 36 belonged to the Norte region.
• The analysis of the relationship between the number of confirmed cases per 10 thousand inhabitants and population density highlights a set of 36 municipalities with values above the national average in both indicators.
• The pandemic also affected the housing market differently across the territory. The Metropolitan Area of Lisboa and the Algarve, regions with the most dynamic housing market, registered a decrease in the number of dwelling sales in March 2020, compared to the same period in the previous year.
As part of Statistics Portugal's Statslab, this press release also presents data on population mobility at the regional level provided by Facebook's "Data for Good" initiative.