More than 44,000 elderly people live alone in Portugal
The National Republican Guard (GNR) this Sunday revealed the balance of operation “Censos Senior” 2021, a nationwide operation that has been carried out since 2011 and aims to ensure a set of patrolling and awareness-raising actions for the elderly population who live alone and / or isolated.
According to this year’s data, collected during the month of October through 172 classroom actions and 3,431 door-to-door actions, covering a total of 19,812 elderly people, currently living alone and/or giving 44,484 elderly people, or in a situation of vulnerability, due to their physical, psychological, or other condition that may jeopardize their safety.
The districts of Vila Real and Guarda are the oldest living under the conditions recorded, with 5191 and 5012 elderly registered, respectively. Next are the districts of Beja, Bragança, Faro, Portalegre and Viseu, with more than 3000 signposted elderly. On the other hand, the only district that counts less than 1000 elderly people signaled is Porto, with 946.
This year, the military carried out a series of actions “that favored personal contact with elderly people in vulnerable situations”, with the main objective of raising awareness and alerting this target audience to “the adoption of security that reduces the risk of becoming dead crimes, namely in situations of violence, fraud and theft, as well as for the adoption of preventive measures for the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic”.