Lisbon is not that big. In fact, Lisbon has just over half a million inhabitants. There are much more important cities in Europe in terms of population and perhaps it was large cities like Paris, Rome or London that gained more prominence. Well, these cities gained the prominence I speak of, not only because of their architectural beauty, their grandeur as the capital of a rich state or their centuries-old captivating culture. To all this were added other aspects such as economic, financial or even social. Lisbon always ended up being a peripheral city in Europe. But since the 60s, things started to change. Initially with migratory movements from the interior of the country to the capital and more recently with emigration from countries in Africa and Brazil. Little by little, the neighborhoods began to fill up and Lisbon began to expand. Today, within a radius of more or less 25km we have around 2.8 million inhabitants (source: aml.pt).
Of course, Portugal has always been a country of emigrants. In the 60s and 70s they went to France and Switzerland, then Germany and more recently the United Kingdom. But it wasn't exactly Lisbon that felt the flight of people firsthand. It was mainly the interior of the country. In the capital, the population grew and today the “big” city has become more compact and now occupies more space.
Lisbon has a City Council, equivalent to city halls in Brazil, which in turn is divided into parish councils, which are State bodies with more local competences. Each parish council may have one or more neighborhoods and are under the jurisdiction of the municipal body. In the graph above we see how the parishes were organized after their number was reduced in 2015 from 53 to 24. Even so, it is still clear that the center of Lisbon concentrates parishes that are smaller, not only in geographical terms, but also population, as most Lisbon residents live outside the city center. Around us we have the municipalities, which, like the municipality of Lisbon, have their own parishes. The municipalities close to Lisbon are Oeiras to the west, Amadora, Odivelas and Loures to the north and Almada to the south (on the other side of the Tagus River).