Seixal, Madeira: Small, Spectacular, and Remote

Q: How many people live in Seixal?

612 at the 2021 census, for the whole parish. It sits in Porto Moniz municipality, which had the lowest population density in the region at 30.4 per km². DREM publishes no parish-level estimates after the census, so nothing more recent exists at this level of detail.

Q: How far is Seixal from Funchal?

A modelled 47 minutes, and 59 minutes to the airport — among the longest figures on this site. Both are routing-engine outputs at free-flow speed with no traffic, no roadworks and no weather, which on the north-west coast is the omission that matters most.

Seixal is a place people photograph and very few people live in. The 2021 census counted a few hundred residents in the whole parish, and everything a household needs regularly is somewhere else.

The setting is the reason anyone considers it, and the setting is not in dispute. What follows is the part that is.

The scale of it

Seixal counted 612, source: DREM / INE, 2021, read August 26, 2026 residents at the 2021 census — a parish, not a village-sized subset of one. It sits inside Porto Moniz municipality, the least populated and least dense in the region, which had a density of 30.4 per km², source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, 2021, read August 26, 2026 at that census. DREM publishes no parish-level estimates after 2021, so this figure is four years old.

The elevation model puts the centre at 59 m, source: Copernicus DEM GLO-90 via the Open-Meteo elevation API, read August 26, 2026, with ground within a few hundred metres rising to 203 m, source: Copernicus DEM GLO-90 via the Open-Meteo elevation API, read August 26, 2026. That describes terrain near the centre point rather than the parish, which climbs a great deal further behind the village.

The weather, and whose weather it is

No station measures Seixal. The nearest published one is Porto Moniz, along the coast, which recorded 845.7 mm, source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, read August 26, 2026 of rain in 2025 and a mean annual air temperature of 20.5 °C, source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, read August 26, 2026.

Both of those come from a station at sea level on the same coast, so the temperature reading is a reasonable guide. The rainfall figure is a guide to the coast, not to the slopes immediately behind the village: the regional water-resources study finds rainfall rising rapidly with altitude up to roughly six hundred metres, and this village has that altitude directly at its back.

What the sources record, and what they do not

Centro de Saúde do Seixal, on Caminho da Cruz, opens on weekdays only, with no urgência. Round-the-clock urgent care is at Porto Moniz or São Vicente; the region’s only twenty-four-hour hospital emergency department is in Funchal. Buses are the Funchal–Porto Moniz service via São Vicente plus two local routes, on the three-digit numbering in force since 9 March 2026.

Beyond that the record is thin, and this page says so rather than filling the gap. No supermarket and no school in Seixal appear in the sources used here — and their absence from those sources is not the same as their absence from the village. Anyone considering this parish should establish both directly rather than from any website, including this one.

The drive

Modelled at free-flow speed over OpenStreetMap data, Funchal is 47 minutes, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 26, 2026 and the airport 59 minutes, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 28, 2026. Those are among the longest figures on this site, and they contain no traffic, no roadworks and no weather.

On the north-west coast that last omission is the significant one. A modelled forty-seven minutes on a dry afternoon and the same road in an Atlantic depression are not the same journey, and the road along this coast is the one people remember.

Who it does not suit

Practical daily life — a few hundred residents, close to an hour of modelled driving from Funchal, a weekday-only health centre, and no supermarket or school recorded in the sources used here.

Questions people actually ask

How many people live in Seixal?

612, source: DREM / INE, 2021, read August 26, 2026 at the 2021 census, for the whole parish. It sits in Porto Moniz municipality, which had the lowest population density in the region at 30.4 per km², source: DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira, 2021, read August 26, 2026. DREM publishes no parish-level estimates after the census, so nothing more recent exists at this level of detail.

Is there a shop or a school in Seixal?

Neither appears in the sources used for this page, and that is a gap in the record rather than a finding. National supermarket locators do not cover unbranded minimercados, and the school registry entry for a small parish can be listed under a neighbouring address. Both should be checked directly rather than taken from any website.

How far is Seixal from Funchal?

A modelled 47 minutes, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 26, 2026, and 59 minutes, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 28, 2026 to the airport — among the longest figures on this site. Both are routing-engine outputs at free-flow speed with no traffic, no roadworks and no weather, which on the north-west coast is the omission that matters most.

Is there urgent care in Seixal?

No. The centro de saúde opens on weekdays only. Round-the-clock urgent care is at Porto Moniz or São Vicente, and the region’s only twenty-four-hour hospital emergency department is at Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça in Funchal, a modelled 47 minutes, source: OSRM over OpenStreetMap data, read August 26, 2026 away.

Where this came from

SESARAM: Diretório de serviços — centros de saúde. sesaram.pt/portal/utente/diretorio-de-servicos/centr Read August 26, 2026.
SESARAM: Urgência — horário dos serviços. sesaram.pt/portal/utente/urgencia/horario-dos-servic Read August 26, 2026.
SIGA, Governo Regional da Madeira: Renumeração das carreiras para três dígitos, em vigor desde 09/03/2026. siga.madeira.gov.pt/noticias/show/2069 Read August 26, 2026.
Governo Regional da Madeira (portal da geodiversidade): Prada et al., Disponibilidades Hídricas da Ilha da Madeira. geodiversidade.madeira.gov.pt/images/documentos/Publicacoes/Madeira/Dis Read August 26, 2026.
Câmara Municipal do Porto Moniz: Concelho — caraterização. portomoniz.pt/pt/concelho/caraterizacao Read August 26, 2026.
DREM / INE: Censos 2021, resultados definitivos — Quadro 10, resident population by geographic location. estatistica.madeira.gov.pt/en/download-now-3/social-gb/popcondsoc-gb Read August 26, 2026.
DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira: Em Foco — Censos 2021, Resultados Definitivos. estatistica.madeira.gov.pt/download-now/social/popcondsoc-pt/popcond Read August 26, 2026.
Copernicus DEM GLO-90 via the Open-Meteo elevation API: Ground elevation at the centre point and four points about 700 m away. api.open-meteo.com/v1/elevation Read August 26, 2026.
DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira: Precipitação anual, 2000–2025 (série retrospetiva, dados meteorológicos). estatistica.madeira.gov.pt/download-now/ambiente-territorio/dados-me Read August 26, 2026.
DREM — Direção Regional de Estatística da Madeira: Temperatura do ar anual, 2000–2025 (série retrospetiva, dados meteorológicos). estatistica.madeira.gov.pt/download-now/ambiente-territorio/dados-me Read August 26, 2026.
OSRM over OpenStreetMap data: Free-flow driving route — modelled output, not a measured journey. router.project-osrm.org/route/v1/driving/-17.1066358,32.8256971;- Read August 26, 2026.
OSRM over OpenStreetMap data: Free-flow driving route — modelled output, not a measured journey. router.project-osrm.org/route/v1/driving/-17.1066358,32.8256971;- Read August 28, 2026.

Seixal: a few hundred people, and an hour from the capital