Portugal occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and is slightly smaller than Indiana. The country is crossed by three large rivers that rise in Spain, flow into the Atlantic, and divide the country into three geographic areas. The Minho River, part of the northern boundary, cuts through a mountainous area that extends south to the vicinity of the Douro River. South of the Douro, the mountains slope to the plains around the Tejo River. The remaining division is the southern one of Alentejo. The Azores stretch over 340 mi (547 km) in the Atlantic and consist of nine islands with a total area of 902 sq mi (2,335 sq km). Madeira, consisting of two inhabited islands, Madeira and Porto Santo, and two groups of uninhabited islands, lie in the Atlantic about 535 mi (861 km) southwest of Lisbon.
Country lead by President: Aníbal Cavaco Silva (2006)
Prime Minister: José Sócrates (2005)
Population
10,605,870 (growth rate: 0.4%); birth rate: 10.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.0/1000; life expectancy: 77.7; density per sq mi: 300
Land Area
35,382 sq mi (91,639 sq km); total area: 35,672 sq mi (92,391 sq km)
Monetary unit
Euro (formerly escudo) Language
Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official, but locally used)
Ethnicity homogeneous Mediterranean stock; less than 100,000 citizens of black African descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization; East Europeans have entered since 1990
Religion Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant (1995)
Transportation Railways: total: 2,850 km (2002). Highways: total: 68,732 km; paved: 59,110 km (including 797 km of expressways); unpaved: 9,622 km (2000). Waterways: 820 km navigable; relatively unimportant to national economy, used by shallow-draft craft limited to 300 metric-ton or less cargo capacity. Ports and harbors: Aveiro, Funchal (Madeira Islands), Horta (Azores), Leixoes, Lisbon, Porto, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Praia da Vitoria (Azores), Setubal, Viana do Castelo. Airports: 66 (2002).
