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Portugal is a country in the south west corner of Europe. It also controls two island groups, the Azores and Maderia. The Azores are a group of nine islands about 1,300 kms west of mainland Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean while Maderia is about 1,000 kms south west of mainland Portugal, also in the Atlantic Ocean. About a quarter of a million people live on each group. Our figures include these two island groups along with the mainland.

Mainland Portugal borders on to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and south and Spain in the north and east.

Mainland Portugal is divided, almost across the middle, by the River Tagus. North of this the land is mountainous while to the south are rolling plains.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Portugal, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 39 30N
Longitude - 8 00W

The capital of Portugal is Lisbon.

Portugal is a semi-presidemtial republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Portugal is the euro. Portugal is a member of the European Union, having joined in 1986.

Portuguese is the official language.

Check the weather in Lisbon now.

This is the time in Lisbon now

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The Portuguese flag is 2 vertical bands of green (40%) and red (60%) with the national coat of arms centred over the dividing line between the colours. The yellow background to the shield is known as an armilary sphere. It doesn't show very well on our picture but the yellow shapes around the shield are castles.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Portuguese National Anthem called The Song Of The Portuguese. It was adopted in 1911. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

 Heroes of the sea, noble race,
Valiant and immortal nation,
Now is the hour to raise up on high once more
Portugal’s splendour.
From out of the mists of memory,
Oh Homeland, we hear the voices
Of your great forefathers
That shall lead you on to victory!

CHORUS:

To arms, to arms
On land and sea!
To arms, to arms
To fight for our Homeland!
To march against the enemy guns!

The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Portugal is 91,470 sq kms which is the 16th largest in Europe.

Portugal has lakes, rivers and canals which total 620 sq kms.

Portugal has boundaries with 1 other country

• Spain 1,224 kms

Portugal has a coastline of 1,793 kms which is the 14th longest in Europe.

The highest point in Portugal is Ponta do Pica in the Azores at 2,351 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Portugal is 10.83 million people, making it the 11th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 5.52 million are females and 5.31 million are males.

A person from Portugal is called a Portuguese.

To be a citizen of Portugal, one of your parents must be a citizen of Portugal. It is not sufficient to be born in Portugal. You have to live in Portugal for 10 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship, although only 6 years if from a Portuguese speaking colony. 4 years of the previous 8 before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Portugal, by population are:-

• Lisbon 517,802 people
• Porto 249,633
• Amadora 178,858
• Braga 121,394
• Setubal 117,110

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



63.5% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Portugal is 9.1 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Portugal is 11.1 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 3.9 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 4.8 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 42.0 and for males is 38.6. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 29.5.

The elderly dependency ratio is 31.8. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 3.1. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Portugal spends 9.5% of its total income on health care.

There are 4.10 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 3.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

20.8% of the population are estimated as obese.

100% of Portuguese have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

99.6% of the urban population and 99.8% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Portugal releases 50.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 15th highest in Europe.

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Portugal spends 5.3% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Portugal. Primary and lower secondary education continues in three year cycles until 15. Pupils who complete this may then go on the higher secondary education until 18. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the middle of September and finishes at the end of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas and Easter, and a one week break in the middle of the second (spring) term.

94.4% of females and 97.1% of males can read and write by the age of 15.

23.9% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 25.5% are unemployed while with males 22.4% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Portugal is 5.17 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

11.3% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 43 paved airports in Portugal, which is the 13th highest number in Europe.


There are 3,075 kilometres of railways in Portugal, which is the 23rd longest in Europe.


There are 71,294 kilometres of roads in Portugal, which means Portugal is in 22nd place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 4 major national newspapers in Portugal.

There are 11.70 million mobile phone users.

43% of the people have a fixed landline.



7.40 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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