Population and Demographics

The country is fairly homogeneous linguistically and religiously. Native Portuguese are ethnically a combination of pre-Roman Iberians and Celtics with some Roman, Germanic, and Moorish influences, among other minor contributions.

In the 2001 census, the population was 10,356,117, of which 51.7% was female. By the end of 2003, legal immigrants represented 4.2% of the population, and the largest communities were from Ukraine, Romania, Brazil, Cape Verde, and Angola, with other immigrants from parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe. The great majority of Portuguese are Roman Catholic. The biggest metropolitan areas are Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Coimbra, Setúbal and Aveiro. As of 2007, Portugal has 10.6 million inhabitants, of whom about 480,000 are foreigners.

Today, many Eastern Europeans (especially Ukrainians, Moldavians, Romanians and Russians), as well as Brazilians, are making Portugal their home. There is a small number of Chinese. Portuguese is spoken throughout the country, with only the villages of Miranda de Douro's Mirandese dialect recognised as a locally co-official language.

The great majority of the Portuguese population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Religious observance remains somewhat strong in northern areas, with the population of Lisbon and southern areas generally less devout. Religious minorities include a little over 300,000 Protestants. Some Muslims come from former Portuguese African colonies with important Muslim minorities: Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Sao Tomé and Príncipe. 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, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India.

Facts and Figures

• Population: 10,642,836
• Age Structure:
  • 0-14 years: 16.5% (male 914,480/female 837,525)
  • 15-64 years: 66.3% (male 3,501,206/female 3,551,706)
  • 65 years and over: 17.3% (male 757,220/female 1,080,699)
• Median Age:
  • Total: 38.8 years
  • Male: 36.7 years
  • Female: 41 years
• Population Growth Rate: 0.334%
• Birth Rate: 10.59 births/1,000 population
• Death Rate: 10.56 deaths/1,000 population
• Net Migration Rate: 3.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population
• Sex Ratio:
  • At birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  • Under 15 years: 1.092 male(s)/female
  • 15-64 years: 0.986 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.701 male(s)/female
  • Total population: 0.946 male(s)/female
• Infant Mortality Rate:
  • Total: 4.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Male: 5.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Female: 4.42 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life Expectancy at Birth:
  • Total population: 77.87 years
  • Male: 74.6 years
  • Female: 81.36 years
• Total Fertility Rate: 1.48 children born/woman
• HIV/AIDS:
  • Adult prevalence rate: 0.4%
  • People living with HIV/AIDS: 22,000
• Ethnic Groups:
  • Homogeneous Mediterranean stock
  • Citizens of black African descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization number less than 100,000
• Religions:
  • Roman Catholic 84.5%
  • Other Christian 2.2%
  • Other 0.3%
  • Unknown 9%
  • None 3.9%
• Languages:
  • Portuguese (official)
  • Mirandese (official - but locally used)
• Literacy:
  • Total population: 93.3%
  • Male: 95.5%
  • Female: 91.3%