The number of Portuguese workers leaving the country hit a new annual high last year, with the departure of 121,418 – ahead of the previous record set in 1966 when just over 120,000 left, according to National Statistics Institute data.

Every month an average of 10,118 people depart – mainly to France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and former Portuguese colony Angola – and this trend looks set to continue, writes Diário de Notícias.

The newspaper adds that “today’s exodus is different from the 1966 one,” in which –