The Portuguese-speaking world, also known as the Lusophone world (), Lusophony (), or the Lusosphere () is the countries and territories in which the Portuguese language is an official, administrative, cultural, or secondary language. This article provides details regarding the geographical distribution of all Portuguese-speakers or Lusophones, regardless of legislative status. The prefix luso derives from the name of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania.
Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and is an official language of countries on four continents. The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) is an international organization formed to facilitate cooperation between these countries.
Statistics Native speakers This table depicts the native speakers of the language, which means that the table includes people who have been exposed to the Portuguese language from birth and, thus, excludes people who use the language as a second language (L2).
Country or territoryNumber%YearNoteReference(s)10,76013.5%2022The percentage is calculated from the World Bank population estimate for the given year.16,655,12945.5%202467,3270.3%2021The reported population size was obtained by projecting the respondent percentage to the total population, since the source either included the part of the population who did not answer or did not take into account some parts of the population, for example children.3,1970.04%200172,7150.7%2012Population data by Eurostat, using the source year.203,000,00097%2022221,5400.7%201611,8002.2%20161670.2%20211,089,4971.7%2007Population data by Eurostat, using the source year. 166,0000.2%202343,9850.8%20221250.1%20213901.0%2020125,55419%2023 (China)3,7790.6%201615,3000.2%20195,260,00017%202047,8480.3%201210,153,34597%2023153,12066%202295,1610.16%2022251,4970.54%2021297,0973.4%20239,5240.7%2022236,1850.36%2021224,719 in England and Wales, 6,485 in , 4,981 in Northern Ireland1,154,5770.34%2023Total238,975,388
Status by country Continent Country or territory Status Africa Official (see Angolan Portuguese) Official (see Cape Verdean Portuguese) Co-official with French and Spanish Official (see Guinean Portuguese) Official (see Mozambican Portuguese) Minority Official (see São Tomean Portuguese) Minority Asia Co-official with Tetun (see East Timorese Portuguese) Minority in the state of Goa (see Goan Portuguese) Minority (see Brazilians in Japan) (China) Co-official with Chinese (see Macanese Portuguese & Macanese) Minority in Malacca (see Kristang language) Europe Minority Minority Minority Minority Official (see European Portuguese) Minority in Olivenza; Galician is official in Galicia MinorityNorth America Minority Minority Oceania Minority South America Minority Minority Official (see Brazilian Portuguese) Minority Minority (see Uruguayan Portuguese) Minority
Spread of Portuguese
During a period of Portuguese discoveries and through a large colonial empire, the language was spread to areas in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, beyond East Timor and Macau in the Far East. Portuguese-based creole languages also developed during this era.
Today, Portuguese continues to thrive outside the Lusophone world through the presence of large expat communities of Angolans, Brazilians, Cape Verdeans, Portuguese, and Timorese found throughout the world.
Europe Portugal Portuguese is spoken as a first language in Portugal (the language's namesake) by nearly all of the nation's 10.6 million people. The ancestor of modern Portuguese, Galician–Portuguese, began developing in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, in an area encompassing present-day northern Portugal and Galicia, at around the 9th century. Modern Portuguese started developing in the early 16th century.
Galicia (Spain) The region of Galicia in Spain is not exactly classified as Lusophone, but holds close ties to the Lusophony. The Galician language used to form a common dialect continuum with Portuguese during the Middle Ages, denominated as Galician–Portuguese by historians. Thus, efforts have been made by the Xunta de Galicia to promote cultural and linguistical interchange between Galicia and the Lusophone world, such as the Euroregion between Galicia and North Portugal. The Consello da Cultura Galega (Council of Galician Culture) has been considered an observer member of the CPLP since 2016.
Rest of Europe Portuguese-speaking immigrants from Portuguese-speaking Africa, Brazil, Macau, and Portugal have also settled in Andorra (around 15,000 speakers), Belgium, France (around 500,000 speakers), Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In Luxembourg, 19% of the population speaks Portuguese as mother tongue, making it the largest minority language by percentage in a Western European country.
Africa
Angola Portuguese is the sole official language of Angola, and 85% of the population profess fluency in the language. Additionally, 75% of Angolan households speak Portuguese as their primary language, and native Bantu languages have been influenced by Portuguese through loanwords.
Cape Verde Similar to Guinea-Bissau, although Portuguese is the only official language, a Portuguese-based creole known as Cape Verdean Creole is spoken by the majority of the population. Most Cape Verdeans are fluent in Portuguese as well. Education and media are available largely in standard European Portuguese only.
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea was a Spanish colony between 1778 and 1968 and was originally a group of Portuguese colonies between 1474 and 1778. A Portuguese creole is spoken by locals on the island of Annobón.
In 2007, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced a decision to make Portuguese the third official language of the country after Spanish and French. Despite government promotions, Portuguese remains rarely spoken in Equatorial Guinea, but increased political and trade relations with Portuguese-speaking nations (i.e. Brazil, Angola, Portugal) will soon increase the number of Portuguese speakers in the country. News, sports, and entertainment media in Portuguese will undoubtedly also facilitate increased comprehension.Público (Lisbon), 2012-07-20 The majority of the population (~90%) still speaks Spanish as their primary language, and Spanish is still the administrative language and that of education, while French is the second official language.
Guinea-Bissau Despite being the sole official language, only 50% of the population professes fluency in Portuguese. However, a Portuguese-based creole called Guinea-Bissau Creole (Kriol) is spoken by nearly the whole population as a lingua franca.
Mozambique Portuguese is the sole official language of Mozambique and serves as a lingua franca between the various ethnic groups in the country. Slightly over 17% of the population are native speakers of Portuguese, totaling circa 5.8 million native speakers and making it the fourth biggest Portuguese native speaker community in the world right behind Brazil, Angola and Portugal. Also approximately 58.1% profess fluency, which amounts to almost 20 million speakers (a bigger community than Portugal if L2 speakers are counted). According to the 2017 Mozambican census, Portuguese is the second preferred native language (in first place is the Emakwa language spoken mostly in the northern provinces), being the main native language in both the Maputo province and the Maputo Capital in particular and a common second most spoken native language in the Gaza and Nampula provinces. The government, courts, education and most of Mozambican media is available solely in Portuguese, and the country receives several Portuguese and Brazilian television stations.
São Tomé and Príncipe In São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese is by far the most spoken language, with around 95% of the population speaking it at home or professing fluency; 99.8% declared speaking Portuguese in the 1991 census. A Portuguese-based creole called Forro is also spoken.
Rest of Africa Large Portuguese-speaking communities are found in Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia due to immigration from the Lusophone African countries. Portuguese is also taught in the schools of these countries.
Americas North America
There are more than 1.5 million Portuguese Americans and about 300,000 Brazilian Americans living in the United States, and Portuguese is spoken by over 730,000 people at home in the country. There are over 500,000 people of Portuguese descent living in Canada; however, most of the community's population now speaks English or French as their primary language. Portuguese is also a primary language along with English in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda.
In Mexico, mainly in the states of Jalisco, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, and Mexico City, there are small communities of speakers who are Brazilians. Portuguese, Cape Verdeans, Angolans, and Uruguayans are mainly from the Rivera Department.
A Portuguese-based creole known as Papiamento, is commonly spoken in the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It is the sole surviving Portuguese-based creole still in frequent use in the Americas and given official status.
South America
Brazil With a population of over 212 million, Brazil is by far the world's largest Portuguese-speaking nation and the only one in the Americas. Portuguese was introduced during the Portuguese colonial period. Portuguese has also served as a lingua franca between the various ethnic groups in Brazil and the native Amerindian populationDarcy Ribeiro. O Povo Brasileiro, Vol. 07, 1997 (1997). after the Jesuits were expelled from every Portuguese territory and the languages associated with them prohibited.
Portuguese is the native and official language of the overwhelming majority of Brazilians, at 99.5%.
The form of Portuguese spoken in South America is somewhat different (mainly in accent) from that of spoken in Europe, with minor differences in vocabulary and grammar that can be compared to the differences between American and British English, but with somewhat different phonology and prosody from the remaining Portuguese-speaking countries. Nevertheless, European and Brazilian Portuguese are completely mutually intelligible. The vast majority of Brazilian characteristics are also found in some rural, remote Portuguese registers (or the African and Asian ones, indicating an Old Portuguese feature lost in Europe), while nearly all distinctive European characteristics can be found in any major dialect of Brazil (such as fluminense, specially its carioca sociolect, and florianopolitano), due to a stronger or more recent Portuguese and other European immigration.
Migration from Brazil also led to a great number of Portuguese speakers in the Southern Cone (especially Uruguay with portunhol da pampa), Paraguay (see brasiguayos), other regions of South America (especially Bolivia) except Venezuela, Japan (see Brazilians in Japan 400,000 and dekasegi, official numbers do not include second-generation Portuguese speakers and naturalized citizens), South Korea, the Philippines (see Brazilians in the Philippines), and Israel (see Aliyah from Latin America in the 2000s).
Rest of South America Although Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in South America, it has the largest population, area and economy on the continent. Thus, the South American trade bloc Mercosul uses Portuguese alongside Spanish as its working languages. A Spanish influenced Portuguese dialect is spoken in the northern Uruguayan border area with Brazil. Given the proximity and trading relations between Portuguese speaking Brazil, and its respective Spanish speaking nations, Portuguese is offered as a foreign (sometimes obligatory) language course at most schools in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and has become the second-most-studied foreign language (after English) in these countries.