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My name is Ferdinand Magellan, and I am a Portuguese explorer that is said to have gone through the most important maritime voyage ever undertaken during the Age of Discovery!

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Abdon, Dr. Danielle, and Dr. Danielle Abdon. “The Tower of Belém.” Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/tower-belem/.

“Agitágueda Art Festival 2022 in Águeda, Portugal: Everfest.” Everfest.com, https://www.everfest.com/e/agitagueda-art-festival-agueda-portugal.

AboutMadeline PucketteJames Beard Award-winning author and Wine Communicator of the Year. I co-founded Wine Folly to help people learn about wine. @WineFolly. “What Is Port Wine?” Wine Folly, https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/what-is-port-wine/.

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WorldAtlas. “Portugal Maps and Facts.” WorldAtlas, 24 Feb. 2021, www.worldatlas.com/maps/portugal.

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Greece, Reload. “Brain Drain Special: The Push and Pull Factors. Written by David Kazamias.” Reload Greece, 19 Dec. 2016, www.reloadgreece.com/brain-drain-special-the-push-and-pull-factors-written-by-david-kazamias.

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John, Molly. “The Largest Ethnic Groups in Portugal.” WorldAtlas, 25 July 2018, www.worldatlas.com/articles/largest-ethnic-groups-in-portugal.html.

“Portuguese Culture.” Cultural Atlas, culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/portuguese-culture/portuguese-culture-religion. Accessed 18 May 2022.

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“Portugal - Government and Society.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/place/Portugal/Government-and-society. Accessed 18 May 2022.

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Raub, Kevin. “12 Essential Portuguese Foods to Eat While in Portugal.” AFAR, 18 Jan. 2022, www.afar.com/magazine/iconic-portuguese-dishes-and-where-to-try-them.

“Portugal - Climate.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/place/Portugal/Climate. Accessed 18 May 2022.

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“Portugal - Environment.” Encyclopedia of the Nations, https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Portugal-ENVIRONMENT.html.

“Lisbon.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/Lisbon.

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Human Development Report 2020 - United Nations Development Programme. https://www.hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2020.pdf.

Pariona, Amber. “The Biggest Industries in Portugal.” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, 22 May 2018, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-biggest-industries-in-portugal.html.

“Portugal - Environment.” Encyclopedia of the Nations, https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Portugal-ENVIRONMENT.html.

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Sousa, Inês. “10 Reasons to Visit Portugal. Portugal Travel Blog.” 10 Reasons to Visit Portugal. Portugal Travel Blog, EcoTours Portugal, 16 Apr. 2021, https://www.ecotoursportugal.com/en/travel-blog/portugal-4/10-reasons-to-visit-portugal-306#:~:text=In%20Portugal%20you%20can%20find,away%2C%20lots%20of%20leisure%20activities.

“Portugal Registers 34,000 Daily Cases of Covid-19.” The Portugal News, 17 May 2022, https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2022-05-17/portugal-registers-34000-daily-cases-of-covid-19/67133.

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Folk music (called fado!) and dancing are one of the most important aspects of musical expression in Portuguese culture. Their folk music is characterized by sad tunes and lyrics as well as  homesickness. Two varieties of these songs exist, one is Lisbon and the other in Coimbra. Every town in Portugal is required to have a square, which is usually near a church, for presentations of their folk dancing. Usually, the participants will wear colorful dresses, sing traditional songs, and perform folk dances that are usually accompanied by instruments such as the guitar, violin, and drums. That music truly brings back memories...
On the other hand, dance, rock, pop, heavy metal, and hip hop music have become some of the most popular music in Portugal. However, there has been a recent arrival of revivalist folk bands that have shifting the interest of the public from pop genres to folk genres in music!

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A map of Portugal showing where Portuguese is most spoken and where Mirandese is most spoken.

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Portuguese is an Indo-European Romance language and is the official language of Portugal. A majority of the population in Portugal, 96% of it, speaks Portuguese. The language has around 10 different dialects. English is the second most widely used language in Portugal, even though it has very little native speakers of it. Spanish and French are other common languages spoken there, where 10% of the population speaks Spanish. Mirandese is a language that is only spoken by a few, around 15,000, but is still recognized as a co-official regional language in Portugal!

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A pie chart showing the religions in Portugal.

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81% of the Portuguese population identify as Roman Catholic. This is largely because Iberian Peninsula used to be a part of the Roman Empire from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century BC! However, Roman Catholicism has become a part of the Portuguese people's cultural identity, rather than it just being a religious affiliation. As for the rest of the population, 3.3% identified with some other form of Christianity, 0.6% identified with another religion, 6.8% identified with no religion, and 8.3% did not specify a certain religion.

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A pie chart showing the ethnic composition of Portugal.

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In the 10.3 million people that inhabit Portugal, 95% are of ethnic Portuguese descent. I was also of ethnic Portuguese descent! The remaining 5% consist of people who are of Brazilian, Han Chinese, or other sorts of descent. However, the population is united through one language, which is Portuguese, and a common belief which is Roman Catholicism! Portugal is also inhabited by many African people, as they had colonized the countries of Angola and Mozambique before, so many people of that descent still inhabit their former colonizer country!

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Portugal records the highest tourism growth in all of Europe.

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Portugal has a rich and vibrant history, dating all the way back to when the ancient humans roamed the earth! Because of such history, the Portuguese people exhibit a unique cultural and religious heritage, such as the annual agitagueda art festival. Not only that, but Portugal also has a warm, mild climate with 850 kilometers of beaches all along the coastline and a boasting 3,000 hours of sunlight every year! It is a very beautiful country!

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A map depicting COVID-19 cases in different regions of Portugal.

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Lately, in Portugal, there have been spikes in the COVID-19 cases all around the country and, although specialists have stressed the fact that this sixth wave has less risks on health and has lower risks of hospitalization or death, there has been an upward trend in mortality lately! Figures from DGS show that, while the numbers are still much lower than the rate of increase, the morality rate is going up slowly. This Monday (5/16/22), 29 of the infected in Portugal died which adds to the 35 who died on Sunday (5/15/22).

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A map of gender inequality in the world rated by color; Portugal is in the green.

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In 2019, Portugal ranked in 17th place out of 162 countries with a score of 0.075 on the Gender Inequality Index. In their government, 38.7% of their parliamentary seats are held by women and 53.9% of adult women have achieved secondary level education or higher compared to the 54.8% of males. This means that there is barely any gender inequality and their society is very developed socially!

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A graph showing the progression of Portugal's HDI starting from the 1970s to 2010.

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In 2019, Portugal was measured to have a 0.864 on the Human Development Index (HDI). This positioned it at quite spot compared to many other countries, as it was put at 38 out of 189 countries and territories. This means that Portugal has a very high life expectancy, education rate, and GNI per capita!

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A graph showing the distribution of jobs in each sector in Portugal, starting from 2010 to 2020.

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In 2020, agriculture in Portugal was measured as making up 2.11% of the country's gross domestic product. Industry made up 19.36% of that and the services sector made up 65.65%. This shows that Portugal is not in development at all as hardly any of the population works in the agricultural industry. While there still are quite a few that are employed in the industry sector, an overwhelming majority are in the service sector!

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Portugal has the 40th biggest export economy in the world.

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Probably the most well-known industry in Portugal is their wine industry because of their famous port wine! However, the Portuguese also work in other various industries, such as textiles, footwear, ceramics, technology, ship building, and tourism!

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A Portuguese farm that uses terrace farming.

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Air and water pollution are common in Portugal's urban centers and cities. Because of this, their water supply is in danger of being polluted by oil or other pollutants released by these cities! Portugal has 37 cubic kilometers of renewable water, and of that, 53% of it is used in agriculture and another 40% is used in industrial activities. In addition to that, Portugal's wildlife and agriculture is also being threatened by erosion and desertification of the land which is caused by the amount of pollution in their soil!

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A map of the world classifying country's as core, semi-periphery, or periphery. Portugal is marked as semi-periphery.

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Portugal is a semi-periphery country, as it has former colonies, such as Angola and Mozambique, but it also located near core countries, such as Spain! Portugal is classified as a semi-periphery country because of its intermediate level of economic development and their role as a link between the first and third worlds.

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Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and is also the largest city in the country. It has a population of 540,000 and is one of Europe's most important ports, as Lisbon is the center of Portugal's domestic economy. The city of Lisbon also stood as a key city for the exploration of the south Atlantic and Indian Oceans!
The second largest city is Porto, with a population of 230,000. The city of Porto is famous for called fortified wine, called port wine, that it exports. Porto used to be called Cale, but was given its current name when the Romans added a port named "Portus Cale", which is where the name Portugal came from!

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Lisbon is one of the biggest business centers in Europe and houses one of the largest container ports along Europe's Atlantic coast! Additionally, most multinational corporation headquarters in Portugal are located in Lisbon, and it has a higher GDP than any other region in the country.

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Galp Energia is a multinational energy corporation, headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. It consists of over 100 companies engaged in all aspects of the oil, gas, and energy industry.

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Pie chart of Portugal's goals in sustainability in 2020. 

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Actually, among 162 countries, Portugal ranked in the top 30 most sustainable countries in the world with 76.4 points out of 100. However, despite that, Portugal still suffers from an increasing dependence on energy and they still struggle with supplying efficient waste management facilities. Even though Portugal was confirmed to have 100% usable water in their rural areas, they still continue to struggle with the access and quality of their natural resources, such as water or soil, to the general population.

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Portugal is shaped roughly like a rectangle! It has its short sides on the north and south and the long sides on the east and west.

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The Acclamation of the King John IV, drawn by Veloso Salgado (depicting the Portuguese victory at the end of the Portuguese Restoration War)

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One of the most notable conflicts in Portugal's history is the Portuguese Colonial War. It was a 13-year long conflict fought between Portugal's military and their African colonies back in 1961 to 1974. This resulted in the Carnation Revolution which was a military coup that overthrew the authoritarian government and began a shift to democracy! It also signaled the end of the Portuguese Empire and gave independence to the countries of Angola and Mozambique.
Another notable conflict within the history of Portugal is the Portuguese Restoration War which was a war that was fought between Portugal and Spain. The war began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, and with the end of the war brought the end of the Iberian Union.

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Map of the province of Gallaecia, later known as Portugal

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The borders of Portugal were first formed when the Celtic and pre-Celtic people settled in it. Later, it was incorporated into the Roman Republic as a part of Lusitania and part of Gallaecia until 298 AD. Then, the Reconquista Crista began in 722 AD, in which Count Vimara Peres reorganized the region he had conquered during the Reconquista and elevated it to a County. He named it the County of Portugal after the region's major port city, Portus Cale (now known as Porto). In the year 1128, the Count of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, was proclaimed the King of Portugal by his soldiers and became the independent Kingdom of Portugal. That was the beginning of the great country of Portugal! Their border has not changed again since then.

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New Russian natural gas plant, located on the Arctic Coast.

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Portugal was set to have released COVID-19 restrictions, but is currently suffering from an increasing number of infections once more, according to ECDC. Portugal has also recently been considering the halt of import of Russian gas in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia!

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The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

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The government in Portugal is a unitary, multi-party, semi-presidential representative democratic republic. They have a Prime Minister, (who is currently Antonio Costa), that is the head of the government, while the president is the non-executive head of the state. I remember when Portugal still used a monarchy...

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In Portugal, the pastel de nada (meaning custard tart) is the most popular dessert in the whole country. Another popular dish from this country is the polvo a lagareiro, which is basically octopus with olive oil and potatoes. It was my favorite food!

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The main crops grown in Portugal are cereals, such as wheat and barley, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, and grapes which are used in their Port wine! They also often utilize terrace farming in their agriculture.

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The climate in Portugal is relatively temperate and is influenced by its closeness to the Atlantic Ocean. However, the climate varies depending on which part of the country you are in! In the north, it is cool and rainy, while in the south, it is sunny and dry.

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The green on the flag represents hope for the future and the red represents the blood of my nation! The Portuguese coat of arms is in the middle. The design was adopted as the official design on June 30th, 1911. I wish I could've been there to see it!

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Agitagueda art festival: Agueda, Portugal

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During the annual Agitagueda music and arts festival that is hosted every July, they hang hundreds of umbrellas over the streets in Agueda, Portugal. For almost the entire month of July, numerous free events such as live music and performances are in the city's streets! The festival began as an extended celebration centered around the FIFA World Cup in Germany, but has since then grown as a tradition to promote national pride. I wish I could've seen this when I was still alive!

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Belem Tower is a 16th century fortification that was built as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon, the country's capital. Ever since 1983, it has served as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is used as a symbol of Europe's Age of Discovery. That's was the time when I went on what is known as greatest sea voyage during the Age of Discovery!

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A graph of the demographic changes in Portugal compared to the rest of Europe.

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Portugal is in stage 5 on the demographic transition model. The general outlook of a Stage 5 country is when the country experiences a loss of population growth as the mortality rate begins to overtake the fertility rate! Many countries in Stage 5, Portugal included, will see negative population growth in their upcoming years. Portugal's population has been set to reach 10.25 million people in 2023, compared to the 10.27 million people in 2022. This means that Portugal's population is decreasing at a rate of 0.29% (or ~30,000 people) per year. My country is dying!

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Portugal's population in 2019 was a rhombus of sorts. It thinned out at the bottom, where the children are, before growing larger around the middle-aged, then thinning out again as they got older. The fertility rate among women recorded in 2019 was 1.42 births per woman which is much smaller in comparison to the 2.40 worldwide average!

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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is the oldest nation-state on the Iberian Peninsula and is one of the oldest in Europe. It has been invaded and fought over since the prehistoric times, and it has been inhabited by pre-Celtic and Celtic people. It was established as a country during the Christian Reconquista. It is my homeland!

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Map of Europe; to the west of Spain is Portugal

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Portugal is located on the Iberian Peninsula and has Spain on its eastern border and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
The absolute location of Portugal is 39.3999 N, 8.2245 W.

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Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and carries about 27% of the country's entire population. It is also the second-oldest European capital city, coming right after Athens as the oldest, and has outlived various other European capitals by centuries!

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Map of Portugal; most major cities are highlighted here

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Using this map, you can see the capital city of Lisbon, located just southeast of the city Amadora. Further north, you can see the city of Porto placed close to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and it is located right above the city of Vila Nova de Gaia. Near the city of Vila Real is where I was born!

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Port wine is a sweet fortified wine produced in Portugal. Many of its ingredients include Portuguese indigenous grapes. A Port wine glass is smaller than the average wine glass and one serving size is 3 oz. I wish I could've been there to try it!

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A graph of grants given out to students who choose to study abroad in Portugal, starting from 1994 to 2015. 

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Push factors: Most push factors are economic, as Portugal is not a very rich country. In order to find work, many Portuguese people emigrate to Western European countries.  During war times, many Portuguese also emigrated to avoid military service. We never did anything like that in my day!

Pull factors: There are not many pull factors in Portugal, as it is not an ideal place to find work. However, one pull factor could be the educational opportunities Portugal offers. In the past decade, although many scientists have emigrated out of Portugal, many scientists have also immigrated into the country, seeking higher knowledge in their field. Also, as Portugal is promoting immigration into their country, those who immigrate there will also get many benefits which could possibly attract more people!