Indo-European · ISO 639-3 por · pt
Portuguese Language português
Portuguese is an Indo-European language spoken by about 254 million people in 18 countries. It is an official language of Brazil, Angola, Portugal, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe and 2 more. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Portuguese is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Portuguese
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Italic
- Latino-Faliscan
- Latinic
- Imperial Latin
- Romance
- Italo-Western Romance
- Western Romance
- Shifted Western Romance
- Southwestern Shifted Romance
- West Ibero-Romance
- Galician Romance
- Macro-Portuguese
- Brazil-Portugal Portuguese
- Portuguese
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
All 18 countries
| Country | Speakers | Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
 Brazil | 200,247,320 | 91% | Official |
 Angola | 24,925,407 | 67% | Official |
 Portugal | 9,798,912 | 96% | Official |
 Mozambique | 9,004,770 | 27% | Official |
 Guinea-Bissau | 2,132,330 | 100% | Official |
 Timor-Leste | 889,076 | 59% | Official |
 France | 888,869 | 1.3% | — |
 Cape Verde | 464,370 | 76% | Official |
 Canada | 360,791 | 0.93% | — |
 Switzerland | 301,259 | 3.4% | — |
 Sao Tome and Principe | 190,026 | 85% | Official |
 United Kingdom | 136,918 | 0.2% | — |
 Luxembourg | 107,400 | 16% | — |
 Macau | 14,821 | 2.3% | Official |
 Andorra | 11,524 | 13.5% | — |
 Jersey | 4,781 | 4.6% | — |
 Antigua and Barbuda | 1,642 | 1.6% | — |
 Equatorial Guinea | 1 | 0% | Official |
About the Portuguese language
Portuguese (português) is spoken by about 254 million people, which makes it the 8th most spoken language in the world — just behind Urdu (288 million) and ahead of French (208 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Brazil-Portugal Portuguese group within the Italic branch.
Where is Portuguese spoken?
Portuguese is used in 18 countries. The largest communities live in Brazil (200 million), Angola (25 million), Portugal (9.8 million), Mozambique (9.0 million) and Guinea-Bissau (2.1 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Brazil, Angola, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Portuguese: Brazil 91% (200 million), Angola 67% (25 million), Portugal 96% (9.8 million), Mozambique 27% (9.0 million), Guinea-Bissau 100% (2.1 million) and Timor-Leste 59% (889,076).
Portuguese is an official language in 10 countries: Brazil, Angola, Portugal, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Macau and Equatorial Guinea.
Writing system and status
Portuguese is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Papiamento, Galician, Spanish, Asturian, Catalan, Occitan (post 1500) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 pt, ISO 639-3 por.
Frequently asked questions about Portuguese
How many people speak Portuguese?
Where is Portuguese spoken?
In which countries is Portuguese an official language?
What language family does Portuguese belong to?
What is Portuguese called in Portuguese?
Is Portuguese an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.