The Portuguese Empire is famous as the first global empire in history for colonizing the eastern half of the New World, including Brazil, Africa, and Asia. Lisbon Portugal, the capital city is approximately 4 centuries older than Rome and is also known to be the second oldest European capital followed by Athens.ġ1. As the official language of 9 countries, Portuguese holds the 6th rank in the list of most spoken languages in the world.ġ0. It is estimated that more than 236 million people worldwide are native Portuguese speakers.ĩ. In Europe, Portugal is one of the hottest countries, with some parts having almost 300 sunny days a year.Ĩ.> Despite what you may believe, Portuguese is the official language of not only Portugal but also Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Principe, Sao Tome, and Equatorial Guinea. The shield, however, represents the nation’s victories in battles with the Moors.ħ. The colors represent significant messages Green is for hope in the future and Red demonstrates the bloodshed during battles.

The Portuguese flag was designed by national artists. Portugal is the first country that made the inclusion of fingerprints on one’s identity card compulsory.Ħ. It was a kingdom until 1910 when it became a republic.ĥ.

It has had the same borders since the year 1139. Portugal is the oldest European nation-state. One of the facts about religion: most of the country’s population, around 97%, is Roman Catholic.Ĥ.

If you were to divide the area of the country into square miles, you’d find around 111 people on average in each division.ģ. Portugal has a population of around 10.29 million. Portugal's second-largest city is Porto which the country is named after.Ģ. If you see something that looks incorrect, please let me know at wanderer and I'll look into it. Given their nature, these posts are research-based and even though a lot of time has gone into them, it's still possible a mistake has snuck in. This post is part of a series of fun facts posts I'm doing for every country I have articles about here on the blog.

Vasco da gama 10 facts