€25 million to create a network of smart villages and ensure digital coverage within the Algarve. The proposal is from the Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) of the Algarve and the municipalities and was announced by José Apolinário last Friday, November 19, in Albufeira.
The president of the CCDR took advantage of the launch of the National Active Aging Observatory to announce the purpose of, within the scope of Portugal 2030, in public consultation, the regional operational program to mobilize 15 million euros to support the improvement of connectivity in rural and low-density areas and 10 million for actions of economic valorization of endogenous resources and strategies to diversify the economic base in low-density territories.
José Apolinário underlined that, in the demographic domain, recent projections indicate that, in 2070, Portugal will have only around 8 million inhabitants — a reduction of 23% of the resident population compared to the current context — which, if confirmed, it is one of the largest population declines recorded in Europe.
According to these projections, Portugal would become the European country with the highest proportion of the “very elderly” in the population as a whole, with people over 80 years old representing 16,1% of the population.
The combination of natural and migratory balances resulted in an accelerated aging of the Portuguese population, with the most recent demographic projections placing Portugal as the sixth oldest country in the world. According to 2019 data, there are in Portugal more than 161,3 people over 65 for every 100 young people up to 15 years of age, and almost 34,2 people aged 65 and over for every 100 people of working age.
In the Algarve, after a strong population growth in the two decades from 1991 to 2011, the last decade revealed a loss of intensity in population growth in the Algarve, despite the coast still being one of the rare national territories to see an increase in the number of residents .
The growth is quite asymmetrical in the interior of the region, with the gains of the coastal councils being much lower than those of the 2001-2011 decade and less significant than the losses of the inland councils: -13,6% the loss of residents in Alcoutim and of -9,6% in Monchique.
«The aging index in the Algarve, around 149,2 elderly people per 100 young people, in 2020, is, however, high and worrying, conditioning the dynamics of population renewal, therefore, also the dynamics of the labor market in the region, where the The number of inactive workers per 100 employees is higher than the figures for the Mainland (109,4 against 106,8), the result of a trend towards a decrease in the active population, which is more accentuated regionally and an increase in the inactive population, contrary to the behavior of the mainland territory. , between 2013 and 2020», says the CCDR Algarve.
However, this demographic profile can also represent "a source of emerging opportunities in the promotion of forms of active aging and in the creation of new services and territorial qualifications that led to the recognition of the Algarve as a reference space for healthy aging, stimulating the segment the gray economy, longevity and well-being and enhancing factors of innovation and complementarity between the sectors of human health and tourism».
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