Statistics Portugal releases the main results of the National Health Survey (INS) carried out in the 4th quarter of 2025. At the methodological level, it integrates the new Estimates of Resident Population (based on administrative data) into the calibration model (see Technical note). Considering the methodological differences introduced in these estimates in 2021, as well as the influence of demography on health statistics, a comparative analysis of the INS 2025 results with those of previous editions (2014 and 2019) should take this context into account.
Low back pain was in 2025 the main chronic disease in Portugal, affecting 3.2 million residents aged 15 or over, that is, almost a third of the population under study, and was also one of the chronic diseases most prevalent amongst young people (25 to 34 years old).
Also relevant were the proportions of people who reported having high blood pressure (25.6%), high cholesterol (23.8%), neck pain or other chronic neck problems (21.6%), allergies (20.2%) and arthrosis (19.0%).
5.6 million residents aged 15 and over (56.4%) reported that their oral health was good or very good, 3.1 million as fair (31.0%) and 1.2 million as poor or very poor (11.9%). This may have been influenced by the fact that 6.0 million residents (60.7%) had visited a dentist within the last 12 months and 3.7 million had done so 12 months or more ago (36.9%).
In 2025, more than half of the population aged 18 or over (57.1%) was overweight or obese, that is, had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or more kg/m2. Obesity (30 or more kg/m2) and pre-obesity (25 to 29 kg/m2) reached 1.7 million and 3.8 million people aged 18 and over, respectively.
The proportion of people who ate vegetables and salads daily was just 40.6%, and the proportion who took part in physical exercise weekly was just 43.4%, whilst 55.9% consumed alcohol regularly (15.3% daily and 40.6% regularly, but not every day).
In 2025, 1.4 million residents aged 15 or over (14.6%) were smokers, of whom 1.2 million smoked daily (12.7% of the total population aged 15 or over). 8.4 million people aged 15 or over (84.6%) were non-smokers, of whom 6.2 million had never smoked (61.9%) and 2.3 million were former smokers (22.7%).
In 2025, hearing in a noisy environment and using one’s memory and concentration were the main sensory or physical difficulties reported by the resident population aged 15 or over (around 2.3 million people, or 22.8% in both cases), whilst the proportion of people with difficulties seeing was also over 20% (2.0 million, i.e. 20.5%).
