Continental Portugal

Context

The designation mainland Portugal is used to differentiate the continental territory of Portugal from its insular territory. The latter comprises the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. The Azores and Madeira are also commonly referred to as the autonomous regions (Portuguese: as regiões autónomas), insular Portugal (Portuguese: Portugal Insular) or, simply, the islands (Portuguese: as ilhas).

Continental Portugal is divided into 18 districts. Outside of these the islands of Madeira and the Azores are the Autonomous Regions of Portugal.

The European Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics defines the geographic plurality of the mainland Portugal and the islands as the primary NUTS I territorial division (see administrative divisions of Portugal: NUTS for details).

While in modern Portugal the difference between European continental and total territory is minor (in terms of area), it mattered during the existence of the Portuguese Empire, when the distinction was more frequently made, such as in the colonisation of Brazil. Continental Portugal has an area of 89,015 square kilometres (34,369 mi²) or 96.6% of the Portuguese national territory (92,145 square kilometres (35,577 mi²)) and 10,912,573 inhabitants (or 95.52% of the total population of 11,424,031).