Country Information
If you are going to visit Republic of Portugal and teach English there, do not forget to find out everything regarding this country.
Country Information
portugalNational name: República Portuguesa
President: Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Prime Minister: Mário Soares
Area: 35,672 sq mi (92,391 sq km)

Population (2005 est.):
10,566,212 (growth rate: 0.4%);
- birth rate: 10.8/1000;
- infant mortality rate: 5.0/1000;
- life expectancy: 77.5;
- density per sq mi: 296

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Lisbon, 2,618,100 (metro. area), 559,400
Other large city: Oporto, 264,200
Monetary units: Euro (formerly escudo)  
Language:
- Portuguese (official),
- Mirandese (official, but locally used)

Ethnicity/race:
- homogeneous Mediterranean stock;
- less than 100,000 citizens of black
- African descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization;
- East Europeans have entered since 1990
 
Religions:
- Roman Catholic 94%,
- Protestant (1995)

Literacy rate: 93% (2003 est.) 

Economic summary
- GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $188.7 billion; per capita $17,900.
- Real growth rate: 1.1%.
- Inflation: 2.1%.
- Unemployment: 6.5%.
- Arable land: 22%.
- Agriculture: grain, potatoes, olives, grapes; sheep, cattle, goats, poultry, beef, dairy products.
- Labor force: 5.48 million; services 60%, industry 30%, agriculture 10% (1999 est.).
- Industries: textiles and footwear; wood pulp, paper, and cork; metalworking; oil refining; chemicals; fish canning; wine; tourism.
- Natural resources: fish, forests (cork), tungsten, iron ore, uranium ore, marble, arable land, hydropower.
- Exports: $31.13 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): clothing and footwear, machinery, chemicals, cork and paper products, hides.
- Imports: $43.73 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum, textiles, agricultural products.
- Major trading partners: Spain, Germany, France, UK, U.S., Italy, Belgium, Netherlands.

Communications
- Telephones: main lines in use: 5.3 million (yearend 1998); mobile cellular: 3,074,194 (1999).
- Radio broadcast stations: AM 47, FM 172 (many are repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998).  
- Radios: 3.02 million (1997).
- Television broadcast stations: 62 (plus 166 repeaters).
- Televisions: 3.31 million (1997).
- Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 16 (2000).
- Internet users: 4.4 million (2002).

Transportation
- Railways: total: 2,850 km (2002).
- Highways: total: 68,732 km; paved: 59,110 km (including 797 km of expressways); unpaved: 9,622 km (2000).
- Waterways: 820 km navigable; relatively unimportant to national economy, used by shallow-draft craft limited to 300 metric-ton or less cargo capacity.
- Ports and harbors: Aveiro, Funchal (Madeira Islands), Horta (Azores), Leixoes, Lisbon, Porto, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Praia da Vitoria (Azores), Setubal, Viana do Castelo.
- Airports: 66 (2002).