There are currently 178 million people with Portuguese as their first language, mostly based in Brazil, Portugal and former Portuguese colonies such as East Timor and Macau. It is also the official language of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique, and is spoken in 37 countries around the world.

The Portuguese language evolved from Latin, and as the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal) was invaded by Germanic tribes and the Arabic-speaking Moors between 500 and 700AD, more and more of their words were added to Portuguese. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, when Portugal established an overseas empire, the Portuguese language spread to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Nowadays, Portuguese is increasingly cited by employers looking to employ people with language skills, as Brazil is growing in importance economically. Indeed, the Brazilian economy – currently the tenth largest in the world – has been predicted to become one of the five largest in next 30 years. Given the number of people who speak it, some people are campaigning to add Portuguese to the list of 6 official languages of the United Nations (English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian).

In 2016, the Olympic Games will be held in a Portuguese-speaking country for the first time when Rio de Janeiro hosts the 31st Summer Games.