Portugal is located in Southwestern Europe, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Spain.
Portugal has borders with Spain for 1214km.
Land in Portugal is mountainous north of the Tagus River, rolling plains in south.
Portuguese land covers an area of 92391 square kilometers which is slightly smaller than Indiana
As for the Portuguese climate; maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and drier in south.
Portuguese (singular and plural) speak Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official - but locally used).
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Aveiro Azores Beja Braga Bragança Castelo Branco Coimbra Évora Faro Guarda Leiria | Lisboa Madeira Portalegre Porto Portugal (general) Santarém Setúbal Viana do Castelo Vila Real Viseu |
Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil as a colony. A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms. The following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC (now the EU) in 1986.
Portugal has become a diversified and increasingly service-based economy since joining the European Community in 1986. Over the past decade, successive governments have privatized many state-controlled firms and liberalized key areas of the economy, including the financial and telecommunications sectors. The country qualified for the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998 and began circulating the euro on 1 January 2002 along with 11 other EU member economies. Economic growth had been above the EU average for much of the past decade, but fell back in 2001-05. GDP per capita stands at two-thirds that of the Big Four EU economies. A poor educational system, in particular, has been an obstacle to greater productivity and growth. Portugal has been increasingly overshadowed by lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a target for foreign direct investment. The government faces tough choices in its attempts to boost Portugal's economic competitiveness while keeping the budget deficit within the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP ceiling.
Portuguese natural resources include fish, forests (cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten, silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable land, hydropower
Azores and Madeira Islands occupy strategic locations along western sea approaches to Strait of Gibraltar
Portuguese religion is Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant (1995).
Natural hazards in Portugal include Azores subject to severe earthquakes.