The Portuguese Republic is a country in the extreme southwest of Europe, on the Iberian peninsula, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and south, and Spain to the north and east. It also includes two groups of islands in the Atlantic: the Azores (Açores) and the Madeira.
República Portuguesa
Mainland Portugal consists of 18 districts (distritos, singular - distrito):
Beyond these there are two autonomous regions (regiões autónomas): the Azores (Açores) and Madeira. Each district is further subdivided into the Municipalities of Portugal[?].
Continental Portugal is split in two by its main river, the Tagus (Tejo). To the north the landscape is mountainous, though Portugal's highest point is Mount Pico[?] in the Azores at 2,351 m. The south down to the Algarve features mostly rolling plains and the climate here is somewhat warmer and drier than the cooler and rainier north. Other major rivers include the Douro, the Minho and the Guadiana, similar to the Tagus in that all originate in Spain.
Portugal has become a diversified and increasingly service-based economy since joining the European Union in 1986. Over the past decade, successive governments have privatised many state-controlled firms and liberalised key areas of the economy, including the financial and telecommunications sectors. The country qualified for the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998 and began circulating its new currency, the euro, on January 1, 2002 along with 11 other EU member economies.
Economic growth has been above the EU average for much of the past decade, but GDP per capita stands at just 75% of that of the leading EU economies. The government has failed to reign in a widening deficit and to advance structural reforms needed to boost Portugal's economic competitiveness. A poor educational system, in particular, has been an obstacle to greater productivity and growth. Portugal has been increasingly overshadowed by lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a target for foreign direct investment.
Portugal is a fairly homogenous country linguistically, ethnically and religiously; Portuguese is spoken throughout the country, with only the town of Miranda de Douro's Asturian dialect recognised as a locally co-official language. Minorities, such as those of African immigrants from the former colonies, number less than 100,000. The majority of the Portuguese population is a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
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