Demographics

Nationality

Noun: Portuguese (singular and plural)
Adjective: Portuguese

Languages

The official language in Portugal is Portuguese and is spoken throughout the country. Another language called Mirandese is also spoken however only locally in the villages of Miranda do Douro.

Population

The population of Portugal is around 10.5 million. 58% of these live in the Greater Lisbon and greater Porto area.

Age structure

The largest percentage of the population is between 15-64 years – approximately 66%, About 16.5 % is between 0-14 and around 17.5% of the Portuguese are 65 and over.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy in Portugal is high; the average age for the total population is about 78 years of age where the men are expected to live till about 75 and women till about 81.

Religions

The majority of the Portuguese population, around 84 %, belong to the Roman Catholic Church. However, you will also find a small minority of Protestants and Muslims as well as some Hindus, Jews and Buddhists.

Immigrants and ethnic groups

Portugal has experienced a steady immigration from Africa since the independence of the former African colonies. It has especially been people from Cape Verde and Angola, but also people from Mozambique and former Portuguese India in Asia. During the 1990s many Eastern Europeans such as Russians, Bulgarians, Romanians and Moldavians immigrated to Portugal and since 2000 it has mainly been people from Brazil and China. During recent years the number of western Europeans who move to Portugal has risen and many British, German, French and Dutch people now live in Portugal – especially in the Algarve area.
94 % of the population is Portuguese. Brazilians, Black, mixed race and other Europeans each represents about 1.2 % of the total population.