Portuguese Worldwide

More than 200 million people speak Portuguese throughout the world today. Portuguese ranks third among the western languages, after Spanish and English and is the official language of eight countries: Angola (10.3 million inhabitants), Brazil (170 million), Cape Verde (423,120), Guinea-Bissau (1.3 million), Mozambique (17.2 million), Portugal (9.9 million), São Tomé and Príncipe islands (165,034) and Timor Lorosae (750 000). It is also spoken in India (Goa, Damao e Diu) and Macau. (For description, click here)

Millions of Portuguese are settled throughout the world, especially in European Union countries, US, Canada, South Africa and Australia. Brazil is particularly important as it has the largest population and economy of South America. Few Brazilians are fluent in English and many citizens of neighbouring countries learn Portuguese to facilitate their business and professional operations in Brazil.

In 1986, Portuguese became an official language in the European Union (EU), formerly the European Economic Community, when Portugal was admitted to the organization. As a result of the Mercosul agreements that created the Southern Latin American Common Market, who includes Brazil, Portuguese is being taught as a foreign language in the other member countries.

In 1996, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP in Portuguese) was created. The purpose of this community is to increase cooperation and cultural exchanges among the member countries, to create a uniform Portuguese standard and to spread the language.

In the vast noncontiguous areas of the world where Portuguese is spoken there are differences and variations in the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary (this is the case with every living language). Though we cannot deny these differences, they are not sufficient to challenge the basic structure of the language. Despite its history, Portuguese continues to maintain its considerable cohesion among its many variations.