Demographics of Portugal


This article is about the demographic features of the population of Portugal, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
In 2010 Portugal had 10,572,721 inhabitants.
Portugal is a fairly linguistically and religiously homogeneous country. Ethnically the Portuguese people form 95% of the total population in Portugal. The Portuguese people are mainly a combination of ancient paleolithic populations, and the proto-Celtic, Celtic and Iberian tribes, para-Celtic Lusitanians. Some other groups, like the Romans, Germanic and later the Moorish, Sephardic Jewish, and the French also passed through the country.
Today, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians, Russians, Bulgarians, Brazilians, Venezuelans and members of PALOP countries are the immigrants and form the major foreign communities in the country. Portuguese is spoken throughout the country, with only the villages of Miranda do Douro's Mirandese language recognised as a locally co-official language.

Total fertility rate from 1850 to 1899

The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Years18501851185218531854185518561857185818591860
Total Fertility Rate in Portugal4.54.474.444.414.384.354.334.34.274.244.21

Years1871187218731874187518761877187818791880
Total Fertility Rate in Portugal4.174.184.194.24.214.224.234.244.234.22

Years189118921893189418951896189718981899
Total Fertility Rate in Portugal4.164.064.153.863.93.93.953.933.89

Vital statistics since 1900

Natural increase current

Source:
The following demographic statistics are from the World Population Review.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
;Population:
;Age structure:
;Median age:
;Birth rate:
;Death rate:
;Total fertility rate:
;Net migration rate:
;Population growth rate:
;Mother's mean age at first birth:
;Life expectancy at birth:
PeriodLife expectancy in
Years		PeriodLife expectancy in
Years
1950–195560.31985–199074.0
1955–196062.41990–199574.9
1960–196564.51995–200076.0
1965–197066.42000–200577.6
1970–197568.32005–201079.3
1975–198070.42010–201580.5
1980–198572.52015-201982.0

Source: UN World Population Prospects
;Religions:
Roman Catholic 81%, other Christian 3.3%, other 0.6%, none 6.8%, unspecified 8.3%
note: represents population 15 years of age and older
;Infant mortality rate:
;Infant mortality rate:
YearDeaths/1,000 live births
20005.5
20015.0
20025.0
20034.1
20043.8
20053.5
20063.3
20073.4
20083.3
20093.6
20102.5
2011
20124.6
20174.3

;Dependency ratios:
;Urbanization:
;Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
;School life expectancy :
;Unemployment, youth ages 15–24:
;Sex ratio:

Urban organization

Metropolitan areas and agglomerations

As of 2001 Census, Portugal had two significant agglomerations: Lisbon Metropolitan Region and Northern Littoral Urban-Metropolitan Region with 2.99 million people, the later with a polycentric nature. These broader agglomerations are distinct from the political metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto – Grande Área Metropolitana de Lisboa and Grande Área Metropolitana do Porto. Together they hold 43% of the total population.
ImageCityMetropolitan areaSubregionCore municipality
Lisbon2,846,3322,042,326507,220
Porto1,758,5311,401,805237,559

Largest urban areas

When considering the number of inhabitants in consistent single urban areas, de facto cities in mainland Portugal, per the new with increased density of human-created structures, and excluding suburban and rural areas, Portugal has two cities with about one million inhabitants each, ten others with more than 50,000 inhabitants and 14 cities with populations between 20,000 and 40,000 inhabitants.
Note: the following table does not include cities in the Portuguese islands of Madeira and Azores in mid-Atlantic Ocean.

Largest cities

Portugal has 151 localities with city status. Every city is included into a municipality. This is a list of population by city, which means that it refers to the number of inhabitants in the city proper, excluding inhabitants from the same municipality but living outside the urban area of the city in other civil parishes of the municipality. In some cases, the entire municipality and the city proper cover the same territory.

Largest municipalities by population

Denotes the number of inhabitants in the municipality area; area is in km2; only for populations of over 100,000 inhabitants.

People

Nationality

Languages

The main language is Portuguese. Mirandês, is also recognised, and has special protection in the area of Miranda do Douro.

Immigration

In 1992, 1.3% of the population was foreign, by 2007 the number had grown to 4.1% or 435,736 people.
Since the independence of the former African colonies, Portugal saw a steady immigration from Africa, most notably Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau, but also São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique and former Portuguese India in Asia.
Portugal saw migration waves due to labor shortages since 1999, first from Eastern Europe, in two distinctive groups, a Slav and an East Latin, that stopped and started declining as the labour market became saturated.
Since 2003, most of the immigrants came from Brazil, China and the Indian subcontinent. Family reunification was seen as important for a successful integration in the country, thus the government eased it, and in 2006, more than 6 in 10 new immigrants were family members of legal foreign residents in the country.
There is also a significant number of elderly Western European residents in search of quality of life, namely from France, German, the Netherlands and United Kingdom.
NationalityPopulation
151,304
37,436
34,358
31,065
29,718
27,839
25,408
23,125
22,691
18,886
17,619
16,849
15,848
14,669
10,241
10,038
7,964
6,839
6,551
5,310

Ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities

laws prohibit and penalize racial discrimination in housing, business, and health services. In 2007 approximately 332,137 legal immigrants live in the country, representing approximately 5% of the population. The country also has a resident Romani population of approximately 40,000 people.
Discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of other state services is illegal. The law mandates access to public buildings and to newly built private buildings for such persons.

Religion

The great majority of the Portuguese population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Religious observance remains strong in northern areas, with the population of Lisbon and southern areas generally less devout and strongly anticlerical. Religious minorities include a little over 300,000 Protestants and Mormons. There are also about 50,000 Muslims and 10,000 Hindus. Most of them came from Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. There are also about 1,000 Jews. Portugal is also home to less than 10,000 Buddhists, mostly Chinese from Macau and a few Indians from Goa. Portugal is still one of the most religious countries in Europe, most Portuguese believe with certainty in the Existence of God and religion play a big importance in the life of most Portuguese. According to the Pew Research Center, 40% of Portuguese Catholics pray daily.

Literacy