by David Lessard
Population: 10,524,145 (2004)
Languages: Portuguese (official), Mirandese
(official - but locally used)
Religion: Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant
(1995)
Life Expectancy: 77.35
(Above statistics from CountryReports.org)
Most Portuguese belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The northern areas tend to be very devout in their religious observations, while the southern areas and Lisbon maintaining a weaker religious presence. Minorities include about three-hundred thousand Protestants, fifty-thousand Muslims, ten-thousand Hindus, and about a thousand Jews. Many people have Jewish heritage, and practice some Jewish customs while still practicing Catholicism.
Since the de-colonization period, Portugal has been receiving immigrants from its former African colonies (most of the Muslims and Hindus are from Goa), from Europe due to the climate and low cost of living, and Eastern Europe, such as Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and Russia. Brazilians are also immigrating to Portugal searching for a better life. Portugal used to be a country of emigration, but now it has become a country of immigration. Its population growth rate has risen from .17% in 2003 to .41% in 2004.
Even with all of this immigration, Portugal is fairly homogeneous culturally and linguistically. Portugal is ethnically a combination of native Iberians, Romans, Celts, and Visigoths. The Moors have had a large influence on Portugal during their occupation pre-1500, and there are also Suevi and Phoenician ethnicities. Most of these ethnicities have intermingled over the centuries and the Portuguese are fairly homogenous. There is more cultural differentiation from individual villages, towns, or cities than regional differences. Portuguese is spoken almost solely as the country’s official language, but the Mirandese dialect is also recognized and only used in a few villages. Asturian is another rarely used dialect but is not officially recognized.
Population:
10,048,232 (July 2000 est.)
10,102,022 (July 2003 est.)
10,524,145 (July 2004 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16.8% (male
874,198; female 825,742)
15-64 years: 67.2% (male
3,326,957; female 3,461,425)
65 years and over: 16%
(male 651,697; female 962,003) (2003 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.18% (2000 est.)
0.17% (2003 est.)
0.41% (2004 est.)
Birth rate:
11.49 births/1,000 population (2000
est.)
11.45 births/1,000 population (2003
est.)
10.9 births/1,000 population (2004
est.)
Death rate:
10.2 deaths/1,000 population (2000
est.)
10.21 deaths/1,000 population (2003
est.)
10.37 deaths/1,000 population (2004
est.)
Net migration rate:
0.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population
(2000 est.)
0.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population
(2003 est.)
3.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population
(2004 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.07
male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.09
male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98
male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.71
male(s)/female
total population: 0.94
male(s)/female (2004 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
6.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2000
est.)
5.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2003
est.)
5.13 deaths/1,000 live births (2004
est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.35
years (2004 est.)
male: 74.06 years (2004
est.)
female: 80.85 years (2004
est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.47 children born/woman (2000
est.)
1.49 children born/woman (2003
est.)
1.46 children born/woman (2004
est.)
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 93.3%
male: 95.5%
female: 91.3%
(Above statistics from answers.com)
David (webmaster): y3kushan at yahoo dot com
Last Updated 2/27/05
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