Portugal
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.
Government - Parlimentary democracy.
Land area: 35,382 sq mi (91,639 sq km); total area: 35,672 sq mi (92,391 sq km)
Population (2006 est.): 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
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Lisbon, 2,618,100 (metro. area), 559,400
Other large city: Oporto, 264,200
Monetary unit: Euro (formerly escudo)
Languages: Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official, but locally used)
Ethnicity/race: homogeneous Mediterranean stock; less than 100,000 citizens of black African descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization; East Europeans have entered since 1990
Religions: Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant (1995)