Portugal, A Social Portrait

Portuguese people are very different today than they were thirty years ago. They live and work differently. But they feel like they belong to the same country as our grandparents. It is the result of history and memory that creates a common heritage. They are born in better conditions, but they are born less. They live longer. They have smaller families. Elderly people are increasingly living alone.

Professions have changed a lot in recent decades. Most Portuguese people work in services. Few work in agriculture and even fewer in fishing. Many emigrated. Women make up half of all working people, which is a big difference from the recent past. With European integration, the Portuguese economy underwent a major change. Everyone is living better, but there are many companies that have not been able to adapt to the new conditions.

The contemporary urban society was still rural not long ago. It changed very quickly. Many Portuguese emigrated, the majority left the villages and went to live in the cities and on the coast. The countryside is unpopulated. The cities grew. The roads brought the regions closer together. In metropolitan areas, a new everyday life was organized. There is more comfort inside homes, but living conditions in cities are difficult.

Forty years ago, there was only one people, one ethnicity, one language, one culture, one religion and one politics. Today, Portugal is a plural society. First emigration and tourism, then democracy, finally foreign immigrants, made Portugal an open society. All languages ​​are spoken, all gods are prayed to, and all political beliefs are held. The Portuguese learn to live with others.

With an open society, democracy, European integration and economic growth, the Portuguese are now full citizens for the first time in their history. They have political and social rights and the respective guarantees. Women are equal to men. But justice, which should accompany this progress and adapt to the new society, has difficulties in guaranteeing citizens' rights.

Portuguese families today have more income and more comfort. In twenty or thirty years, well-being has improved more than in the previous hundred. The middle classes grew. Mass consumer society developed. Commerce, fashions, schools, television and culture create a society where everyone seems equal. But there are still very important differences in class, economic power, generation, sex and region.

Portugal no longer stands out in Europe as the country of dictatorship, poverty and illiteracy. Although still backward, the Portuguese are now free citizens and have access to the great services of the Social Protection State. Education, social security and health are for everyone. But there are still inadequacies, corruption and waste. And deficiencies in health, education, social security and justice.