The New Christians, who had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism to avoid persecution but many of whom continued to practise their previous faith, began to migrate in small numbers to Britain in the late 15th century.

[9][10] Some Portuguese emigrated to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, when guest workers left Portugal for other Western European countries in search of employment opportunities.

Young males also left Portugal at this time in order to avoid being conscripted to fight in the Portuguese Colonial War.

While different sources disagree on the total size of the Portuguese population of the UK, they agree that there has been a significant increase in migration from Portugal since 2000.

After 30 June 2021, EU citizens of all Member States who have not obtained ILR under the Scheme will no longer, from a technical consideration, be legally resident in the UK.

According to academics José Carlos Pina Almeida and David Corkill, writing in 2010, estimates of the Portuguese population of the UK range from 80,000 to 700,000.

The English region with the largest concentration of Portuguese-born residents was London, accounting for almost half of the total England and Wales population.

[11] Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that in the three months to June 2008, 82.8 per cent of working-age Portuguese-born men were in employment.

[29] Studies have attributed this relative underachievement to factors including "lack of understanding of the British education system, difficulties in speaking English, poor school attendance, poverty, interrupted prior education, negative teacher perceptions, poor school to home liaison and lack of exposure to written language".

The list below includes Portuguese immigrants and expatriates in the United Kingdom, who are not official British citizens, but residents of the UK.