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The great majority of the Portuguese population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Religious observance remains very strong in northern areas, with the population of Lisbon and southern areas generally less devout.

European football is the most popular and practiced sport in Portugal. As of August 2004, the country is ranked 8th in 205 countries by FIFA. Luís Figo is one of the world's top players, but the legendary Eusébio, Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo are also noteworthy. FC Porto crowned its international success by winning the UEFA Cup in 2003 and UEFA Champions League in 2004 as well as local cups. The team also won the Intercontinental Cup in Japan last December, by defeating Colombian champions Once Caldas in the penalty shootouts.

Prime Minister José Sócrates was sworn in by President Jorge Sampaio on March 12. To many's suprise, Sócrates formed a cabinet made up of roughly half senior members of the Socialist Party and half independents, among whom are Diogo Freitas do Amaral, founder of the rightist Partido Popular and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Portugal was a strong advocate of independence for East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, and has committed troops and money to East Timor, in close cooperation with the United States, Asian allies, and the United Nations.

Portugal has a territorial dispute with Spain. By the Vienna Treaty of 1815, Spain agreed to return Olivença (Olivenza in Spanish) to Portugal, but this agreement was never met. Portugal has periodically reasserted its claim to the territory. This issue has been discussed at the Portuguese Parliament as recently as 2004. In accordance with international law, Olivença is still considered to be Portuguese territory, despite being under Spanish administration since 1801.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal was a major economic, political, and cultural power. The overseas empire was pervasive across the world.

Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar ruled as a dictator, from 1932 to 1968. Although a stable period financially and economically, it saw the beginning of the end of the Portuguese Empire. India annexed Portuguese India, including Goa, in 1961. Independence movements also became active in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea, and an increasingly costly series of colonial wars failed to defeat the guerrillas. Despite the Salazar's incapacitation in 1968 and his death in 1970), and Marcelo Caetano's marcelist spring, discontent about the wars was one of the factors leading to the 1974 Revolution.

Early Greek explorers named the region "Ophiussa" (Greek for "land of serpents") because the natives worshipped serpents.

Continental Portugal is split in two by its main river, the Tagus (Tejo). To the north the landscape is mountainous in the interior areas with plateaus, cut by four breakings lines that allow the development of relevant agricultural areas. Portugal's highest point, however, is Mount Pico (2351m) in the Azores.

Portugal is a small coastal nation in southwestern Europe. Its mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula, located 38°41° north of the equator and 8°5° west of the Prime Meridian.

The first documented invasion occurred long before the birth of Christ, when the Ophis with other tribes entered the Iberian Peninsula and instaled in the best lands of the Oestreminis, near the Douro and Tagus Rivers. Later the territory has been conquered or settled by numerous civilizations. Celts, Greeks, Iberians and Lusitanians to name some. The Phoenicians also settled in that part of the peninsula and had great influence on the Lusitanians, especially on their religion, culture and language. The Lusitanians are seen as the proto-Portuguese.