The majority of Portuguese people (75.2%) saved money in 2024 and consider saving “difficult or extremely difficult” (55.5%), reveals a study by the Social Challenges Observatory of the Psychology Center of the University of Porto (CPUP).
Speaking to Lusa, the study coordinator, Samuel Lins, revealed that 44.1% of respondents intend to save even more in 2025 than they saved in the previous year and that they are more optimistic about their financial situation than the country’s.
Thus, according to the survey report, consulted by Lusa, around 45.5% of Portuguese believe that Portugal’s economy will worsen, while 14.1% believe that it will improve.
Regarding their own financial situation, the perception is more balanced: 23.1% believe that the financial situation will improve, while 27% predict that it will worsen.
The results report on Consumption Habits and Savings for 2025, which Lusa consulted today, gathered data between April 17 and May 23, using a representative sample of the Portuguese population that included 1,032 participants from all regions of the continent and the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores.
According to the survey, the majority of Portuguese people (54.4%) say they spend less than they earn (54.4%) and 76.7% have the habit of making a shopping list.
In 2024, the majority of Portuguese people (54.6%) sought to improve their financial literacy, and 64.9% intend to do so in 2025.
On the other hand, 20.1% of respondents “agree or completely agree that the amount of possessions and material goods that a person has is an indicator of their happiness and success”.
Regarding purchasing habits, in 2024, 11.4% of Portuguese people “assumed that they made panic purchases, while 24.7% bought as a way to alleviate negative feelings”.
In the study, panic buying is defined as the “act of buying more things than usual, as a result of feelings such as fear and panic”, and “usually occurs in crisis situations”.
Buying to alleviate negative feelings refers to “buying behavior used as an emotional strategy to deal with boredom, sadness, and anger.”
The survey report indicates that 31.5% of Portuguese people made impulse purchases (purchases without thinking, motivated by a sudden desire) and 9.6% purchased products with the aim of impressing other people.
Regarding influences on purchases, 54.2% of Portuguese people say that concern about environmental issues influences decisions.
34% of respondents recognize that “they consider opinions and comments on social networks before purchasing a product”.
The Observatory of Social Challenges (ODESS) was created in 2021 with the aim of understanding the perspectives of citizens residing in Portugal on various social issues that represent challenges to democracy, social justice, equality and the effective inclusion of different social groups.