TOEFL Test Centers in Portugal

EDU February 16, 2019

Portugal Overview

Portugal, officially Portuguese República Portuguesa [- gesa], German Portuguese Republic, state in southwestern Europe with (2018) 10.3 million residents; The capital is Lisbon.

Country facts

• Official name: Portuguese Republic
• License plate: P
• ISO-3166: PT, PRT (620)
• Internet domain:.pt
• Currency: 1 euro (€) = 100 cents
• Area: 92,225 km²
• Population (2018): 10.3 million
• Capital: Lisbon
• Official language (s): Portuguese
• Form of government: Parliamentary republic
• Administrative division: 18 districts and 2 autonomous regions
• Head of State: President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
• Head of Government: António Costa
• Religion (s) (2011): 81% Catholics, 6.8% non-denominational, 3.3% other Christians, Muslims, Jews
• Time zone: Central European Time -1 hour
• National holiday: June 10th

Location and infrastructure

• Location (geographical): Southwestern Europe
• Location (coordinates): between 36 ° 58 ‘and 42 ° 10’ north latitude and 6 ° 11 ‘and 9 ° 30’ west longitude
• Climate: Warm temperate Atlantic climate, increasingly Mediterranean climate towards the south
• Highest mountain: Pico Alto (Azores) (2351 m)
• Road network (2008): 71 294 km (paved), 11 606 km (unpaved)
• Railway network (2014): 3,075 km

Population

• Annual population growth (2018): 0.3%
• Birth rate (2018): 8.2 per 1000 residents.
• Death rate (2018): 10.6 per 1000 residents.
• Average age (2018): 43.7 years
• Average life expectancy (2018): 80.9 years (women 84.2; men 77.7)
• Age structure (2018): 14% younger than 15 years, 20.3% older than 65 years
• Literacy rate (2015) (15-year-olds and older): 95.7%
• Mobile phone contracts (pre-paid and post-paid) (2017): 114 per 100 residents
• Internet users (2017): 74 per 100 residents

Economy

• GDP per capita (2017): US $ 30,487
• Total GDP (2017): US $ 218 billion
• GNI per capita (2018): US $ 21,680
• Education expenditure (2015): 5.1% of GDP
• Military expenditure (2018): 1.4% of GDP
• Unemployment rate (2017): 9%

Religion

The Constitution (Article 41) guarantees freedom of religion. State and church have been separated by law since 1911. All religious communities are legally equal. The position of the Catholic Church as a state church, which was de facto given in the constitution of 1933, was repealed by the constitution of 1976. The basis of the relationship between the state and the Roman Catholic Church as the largest religious community is the Concordat concluded in 2004 (replaces the 1940 Concordat).

According to the 2011 census, which represents residents aged 15 and over, around 85% of the population are Christians: 81% belong to the Catholic Church, over 3% to other Christian churches (Pentecostals, Adventists, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, etc.). If the baptized children under the age of 15 are included as church members, estimates come to a Catholic population of 90% or more.

The Catholic Church includes the Patriarchate of Lisbon and the Archdioceses of Braga and Évora with 17 suffragan dioceses. The only Protestant church of purely Portuguese tradition is the Lusitanische (Catholic Apostolic Evangelical) Church (“Igreja Lusitana [Católica Apostólica Evangélica]”, about 0.05% of the population) founded in 1880; it has been a member of the Anglican Church Fellowship since 1980 as an overseas diocese under the sovereignty of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

According to various sources, there are (2011) between around 24,000 and 40,000 Muslims living in Portugal (around 0.2–0.4% of the population; the majority of them are Sunnis). Religious centers are the mosque and the cultural center of the Islamic Community in Lisbon, founded in 1968. – After their expulsion from Portugal (1496), the Jews were not officially recognized as a religious community again until 1892. Today there are Jewish communities in Lisbon and Porto; around 800 Portuguese Jews belong to them. – Other religious communities are the Jehovah’s Witnesses (approx. 0.5% of the population) and the Mormons (approx. 0.4% of the population).

Population

The population consists almost entirely of Portuguese. 1974-76 over 600,000 Portuguese came back to the mother country from the former African possessions (retornados). Through immigration, among other things. of the autochthonous population from the former colonies, ethnic diversity has increased since the end of the 20th century. The proportion of people with foreign citizenship was 3.86% (2017). The annual population growth is 0.07% (birth rate 0.9%; death rate 1.1%). The average age is 41.8 years, life expectancy 79.3 years (men 76.1; women 82.8). Of the residents (2016) 15.5% are younger than 15 years, 19.2% are older than 65 years.

The average population density is 112 residents / km ². The 50 km wide coastal strip from the northern border to Lisbon is densely populated. 65% of the population live in cities. The agglomerations of Lisbon and Porto accommodate over a third of the total population.

The biggest cities in Portugal