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People
Cultural Ethos and National Identity
History plays an integral role in the cultural ethos and national identity of Portugal. In particular, Portugal's achievements on the global stage during the Age of Discovery is of paramount importance. Several cultural symbols recall this period in Portuguese history, most particularly in the form of the national flag, which was adopted in 1911. The flag features an armillary sphere -- an ancient astronomical device used for maritime navigation -- and is intended to illustrate Portugal's role in global exploration.
History in Portugal also fondly recalls King Sebastian, who was killed in Morocco in the 16th century and who was supposed to repel the Spaniards who held sway at the time, and restore Portugal to sovereignty. There is, as a result, a grand sense of "Sebastianismo" in Portugese culture, which embodies a hopefulness for a new day to dawn, mixed with the anxiety that such a moment may never arrive in reality. Sebastianismo is present in the lyrics of the Portuguese "fado" or song that expresses longing, and the hopeful nostaligia in what is known in Portugal as "saudade."
Cultural Demography
The vast majority of Portugal's estimated total population of approximately 10.7 million is ethnic Portuguese, living on the mainland (Iberian mainland), as well as on the Azores and the Madeira Islands. Ethnically, the Portuguese people can be considered to be a fairly homogenous people. Approximately 100,000 Africans from former colonies are also residents, who immigrated in the 1970s. There are also small numbers of Jews, Roma and Eastern European immigrants.
Portuguese is the official language and is part of the Romance language family.
Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion. About 94 percent of the population is nominally Roman Catholic; there are also Protestant denominations and other religions represented.
Human Development
Primary education (age 6-12) and junior high school (age 13-15) are free and compulsory, but because many children begin working at an early age, primary education is all the education that many children receive. Senior high school (age 16-17) have academic and vocational components. Twelfth grade (age 18) prepares young people for university and technical college. The estimated literacy rate for those over age 15 is 87 percent. About 4.4 percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures.
Infant mortality rate has greatly improved in the last few decades -- in 1992, the estimated rate was 10 per 1,000 live births, while in the early 2000s, the estimated rate was 5.84 per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy is on average 76 years (72 years of age for males and 80 years of age for females), according to recent estimates.
Access to education, sanitation, water, and health is regarded to be very good. That being said, there is an uneven provision of health care; indeed, the health care available ranges from high quality to a somewhat more moderate level prevalent in the developing world. Although 11.3 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures in this country, many Portuguese, especially those living in rural areas, are not able to enjoy liberal health benefits provided for in legislation.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In recent rankings of 169 countries, the HDI placed Portugal in the very high human development category, at 40th place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com; see Bibliography for research sources.
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