Pick a municipality and see when its buildings were built, from the INE 2021 Census. It compares with the whole country. Nothing is saved or sent.
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Before thinking about one roof, it helps to know when the buildings around it were built. The INE 2021 Census counted 3,573,416 buildings in Portugal and shows, municipality by municipality, when they were built and how much repair they need. This guide sums up those numbers, lets you pick your municipality in the tool above and explains what the data do and do not say about roofs.
Updated 2 November 2026. Data from the 2021 Census, published by INE. We read the indicator in INE’s public interface and checked that the 308 municipalities add up to the national total.
The essentials
- 82.1% of buildings were built up to 2000 (2,933,122 buildings). Only 9.3% date from 2006 onwards.
- 23.1% are older than 1961 (827,124). The most common period is 1961 to 1980, with 27.1%.
- On repair, INE classes every building: 64.2% need no repair, 21.8% need light repair, 9.4% medium and 4.6% deep repair.
- Among municipalities with 5,000 or more buildings, Lisboa (60.3%), Serpa (59.2%) and Porto (52.2%) have most of their stock from before 1961.
- These are figures for buildings, not roofs. They show where the stock is older, not the state of any single roof.
How to use the tool
Pick a municipality from the list (you can type the name). You see the total of buildings, the share built up to 2000, the share from before 1961, the share needing deep repair and one bar per period. The red mark on each bar is the national percentage. Nothing is stored: the calculation runs in your browser on a data file that you can also download.
The country by construction period
| Construction period | Buildings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1919 | 174,200 | 4.9% |
| 1919 to 1945 | 277,571 | 7.8% |
| 1946 to 1960 | 375,353 | 10.5% |
| 1961 to 1980 | 967,182 | 27.1% |
| 1981 to 1990 | 581,768 | 16.3% |
| 1991 to 2000 | 557,048 | 15.6% |
| 2001 to 2005 | 306,273 | 8.6% |
| 2006 to 2010 | 223,237 | 6.2% |
| 2011 to 2015 | 49,449 | 1.4% |
| 2016 to 2021 | 61,335 | 1.7% |
Source: INE, 2021 Census. The 308 municipalities add up to 3,573,416, the same as INE’s national total.
Repair need
INE records a repair-need class for every building. It describes the whole building, not the roof.
| Repair need | Buildings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No repair needed | 780,126 | 21.8% |
| Light repair needed | 335,599 | 9.4% |
| Medium repair needed | 163,101 | 4.6% |
| Deep repair needed | 2,294,590 | 64.2% |
Where the stock is older
For the lists we used only the 218 municipalities with 5,000 or more buildings, because in very small ones a dozen houses shift the percentage. The figures for every municipality are in the tool.
Largest share of buildings from before 1961
| Municipality | Buildings | Before 1961 |
|---|---|---|
| Lisboa | 49,223 | 60.3% |
| Serpa | 9,867 | 59.2% |
| Porto | 39,303 | 52.2% |
| Mértola | 8,511 | 45.7% |
| Estremoz | 7,260 | 44.1% |
| Chamusca | 5,592 | 43.8% |
| Nisa | 7,020 | 43.2% |
| Reguengos de Monsaraz | 6,156 | 43.1% |
| Moura | 9,397 | 41.1% |
| Beja | 13,472 | 40.8% |
Lisboa and Porto appear together with the Alentejo towns of Serpa, Moura and Beja, where old houses weigh heavily in the total. That is what the numbers show. We did not look for the causes.
Where the stock is newer
Here the measure is the share built up to 2000: the lower it is, the more recent buildings.
| Municipality | Buildings | Built up to 2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Óbidos | 8,475 | 66.0% |
| Horta | 6,587 | 67.5% |
| Aljezur | 5,381 | 70.0% |
| Albufeira | 19,806 | 70.3% |
| Lagos | 13,347 | 70.9% |
| Santa Cruz | 12,472 | 71.2% |
| Braga | 40,214 | 72.2% |
| Sesimbra | 21,593 | 72.4% |
| Vila Real de Santo António | 8,213 | 73.0% |
| Calheta | 7,160 | 73.1% |
Municipalities with the most deep repair needs
| Municipality | Buildings | Deep repair needs |
|---|---|---|
| São João da Pesqueira | 5,351 | 11.0% |
| Soure | 10,139 | 10.4% |
| Baião | 10,700 | 10.2% |
| Miranda do Corvo | 6,064 | 10.0% |
| Carrazeda de Ansiães | 5,100 | 9.6% |
| Vouzela | 6,432 | 9.0% |
| Celorico da Beira | 5,852 | 9.0% |
| Alvaiázere | 5,442 | 8.4% |
| Pinhel | 7,614 | 8.4% |
| Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo | 5,190 | 8.2% |
This list has municipalities from the north and centre of the country. Again: it is the class of the whole building, and the list covers only municipalities with 5,000 or more buildings.
What this means for your roof
- A building from before 2005 may have a fibre-cement roof. Asbestos has been banned in new products since 24 June 2005, but what was already installed may stay in use. Read the asbestos guide before touching the sheets. That is why we use “up to 2000” as the clear measure: the “2001 to 2005” group mixes years before and after the ban.
- An older stock does not prove worse roofs. Many roofs were redone over the years. The Census does not say which.
- If your house is old, regular maintenance matters more than the municipality. Use the pre-winter roof checklist and, if you already see stains, the guide to the causes of leaks.
How we read the data, and the limits
- Indicator: “Buildings (No.) by geographic location, construction period and repair need of the building”, 2021 Census, code 0011482. Last updated at INE: 12 November 2022.
- Geography: INE uses the 2013 administrative division (NUTS 2013). The 308 municipalities are the same as today.
- Periods: these are INE’s ten periods. “2001 to 2005” ends in 2005, but the asbestos ban dates from June of that year, so “up to 2000” is the safe measure.
- Percentages: calculated by us from INE’s numbers, to one decimal place.
- Licence: INE publishes these data under a CC BY licence, according to the dados.gov.pt portal. We always name the source.
What we could not confirm
- The roof material. This indicator does not carry it and we did not look for another one in the Census.
- How many roofs were renewed since the building was built.
- How INE assesses “repair need” in detail: we did not read the methodology. We use the class names.
- Data newer than 2021. We found no update by municipality.
- Data by parish. The same indicator has them, but we do not show them here.
Sources (read on 2 November 2026)
- INE, Buildings (No.) by geographic location, construction period and repair need of the building, 2021 Census (indicator 0011482), updated 12 November 2022.
- dados.gov.pt, Edifícios (N.º): INE dataset (CC BY licence).
- Decreto-Lei n.º 101/2005 of 23 June (asbestos ban from 24 June 2005): cited through APA, see our asbestos guide.
- The data used by the tool: JSON file for the 308 municipalities.