World Portuguese Language Day

Did you know that May 5th is World Portuguese Language Day?

Established by the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP – Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa), an intergovernmental organization and an official partner of UNESCO, this day celebrates the Portuguese language and its cultural significance.

Here are some interesting facts about the Portuguese language:

✔ With over 265 million speakers, Portuguese is the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere.
✔ It is the official language of nine countries and one independent territory, Macao.
✔ Portuguese is the 8th most translated language in the world.
✔ The most translated Portuguese-speaking authors are Paulo Coelho, José Saramago, Jorge Amado, Fernando Pessoa, Leonardo Boff (teólogo), Eça de Queirós, António Lobo Antunes, José Mauro de Vasconcelos, Clarisse Lispector e Machado de Assis.
✔ Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian are the languages to which Portuguese translates the most, in that order.
✔ Portuguese is the 5th most used language on the internet, with 171,750,818 users in 2020.

If the language is our homeland, we celebrate nine centuries of Portuguese history and culture.

Source: Ciberdúvidas, Internet World Stats, and Unesco.