Jump to content

List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an official language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Global spread of Portuguese:
  Native language and official
  Official and administrative language

The following is a list of countries where Portuguese is an official language, plus several countries where Portuguese or any language closely related to it, is an important or significant language.

Official or national language

[edit]

Portuguese is the official language (either by law or de facto) in 9 sovereign states (including Equatorial Guinea, where it is official but not a native language), and one dependent territory, and one partially recognized state, totaling around 300 million people.

Primary or only official language

[edit]

In these countries and territories, Portuguese is the main or mostly used language of communication of the vast majority of the population; official documents are written chiefly or solely in that language; and it is taught in schools and utilized as the primary medium of instruction as part of the official curriculum.

Sovereign states

[edit]
Sovereign state Status Population
(2024)[1]
Regulatory body More information
 Brazil De facto[2] 217,637,297 Academia Brasileira de Letras Brazilian Portuguese
 Mozambique De facto[3] 21,669,278 Academia Brasileira de Letras Mozambican Portuguese
 Angola De facto[4] 18,498,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras Angolan Portuguese
 Equatorial Guinea De facto[5] 1,795,834 Academia Brasileira de Letras Brazilian Portuguese
 Portugal De facto[6] 10,318,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras European Portuguese
 East Timor De facto[7] 1,245,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras East Timorese Portuguese
 Guinea-Bissau De facto[8] 1,110,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras Guinean Portuguese
 Cape Verde De facto[9] 499,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras Cape Verdean Portuguese
 Sao Tome and Principe De facto[10] 212,679 Academia Brasileira de Letras Sao Tomean Portuguese
Total 271,000,000 Association of Academies of the Portuguese Language

|}

Territory

[edit]
Territory Status Population
(2021)[11]
Regulatory body More information
 Macau De facto[12] 641,000 Academia Brasileira de Letras Macanese Portuguese

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  2. ^ Brazil does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  3. ^ Mozambique does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  4. ^ Angola does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  5. ^ (co-official with Spanish and French)
  6. ^ The main language of Portuguese Communitities.
  7. ^ co-official with Tetum; 51,800 L1 speakers as of 2007)
  8. ^ Guines-Bissau does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  9. ^ Cape Verde does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  10. ^ Sao Tome and Principe does not have an official language at the federal level however, Portuguese is spoken by the majority.
  11. ^ "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  12. ^ Co-offical with Cantonese.