Portuguese current status, position and power
Six African countries (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, So Tome and Principe) have Portuguese as their official language. One in Europe (Portugal), South America (Brazil), and Asia (Timor Leste), as well as the Portuguese islands of Madeira and Azores, and a compulsory school subject in Uruguay and Argentina. Many countries, including Venezuela, Zambia, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Namibia, Swaziland, and South Africa, teach it in schools. In the northern regions of Uruguay, closer to Brazil, 15 per cent of the population speaks Spanish as a native language. Nonetheless, it is not an official language in any way. Galician, which is spoken in Galicia (northwestern Spain), is merely a Portuguese dialect rather than an independent language; thus, northwestern Spain would be considered a part of the Lusophone world. It is also one of the officials or working languages of Macau (the People’s Republic of China’s Special Administrative Region).
Portuguese, a language spoken primarily in the southern hemisphere, is ranked sixth among world languages in terms of native speakers. The global lusophone population is estimated to be around. Lusophones (lusófonos) are people who speak Portuguese, either as native speakers or as learners. 
More native Portuguese speakers exist than Italians, French, Germans, Japanese, and so on. With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 50 million second-language speakers, Portuguese has approximately 270 million total speakers. French and German, on the other hand, have a far smaller number of speakers. French has around 76 million native speakers, whereas German has approximately 79 million (in fact, French has more than twice as many learners as native speakers!). That means Portuguese has significantly more native speakers than some of the most widely studied foreign languages! There are also around 1,228,126 Portuguese speakers in the United States. The three largest Portuguese-American communities in the US are located in Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; and the New York/Northern New Jersey area. Only 5% of Portuguese speakers live in Portugal. Most live in Brazil. In fact, São Paulo, Brazil has the most Portuguese language speakers in one place in the entire world!
Mercosur, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of American States, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Southern African Development Community, and the European Union all use Portuguese.
CPLP – Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries – was established in July 1996 as a multilateral forum privileged to deepen mutual friendship and cooperation among its nine members, including Equatorial Guinea, and six associate observers, including Mauritius, Senegal, Georgia, Japan, Namibia, and Turkey.
It has also been proposed as the United Nations’ seventh official language.
Learning Portuguese is an appealing opportunity for many people due to Brazil’s rapidly growing economy and its economic and geographical proximity to the United States. The global economy is currently looking for Portuguese language specialists.
Brazil currently has the world’s seventh-largest economy and is rapidly expanding, with a strong presence in global markets such as agriculture, energy, iron and steel, textiles, machinery and equipment, and manufacturing.
Portuguese Future
African and South American countries, as well as China, are showing an increasing interest in Portuguese. It is very likely that, among European languages, Portuguese will have one of the highest increases in its number of speakers until the 2050s, not because of Portugal (dwindling population) or Brazil (moderately growing population), but because of two phenomena: extremely fast demographic growth in Angola, Mozambique, and the other smaller Lusophone countries; and the growing adoption of Portuguese by Africans who previously did not learn or knew only the basics of the language, but now grow up with it either as their mother tongue or as a second language and lingua franca. This means that the number of Africans who speak Portuguese will increase exponentially over the next few decades.
Thus, Portuguese growth will be determined by the economic and demographic prospects of Angola and Mozambique, as well as the economic prospects of Brazil. If Brazil grows healthily, even if only moderately, it will most likely become the fifth largest economy in the next few decades.
In places like India, However, as India and Brazil’s relationship strengthens, the demand for Portuguese language skills is skyrocketing. Indeed, there is a growing demand for Portuguese Language Experts in a variety of fields, including accounting, technology, technical support, finance, exports, tourism, and education. As a result, students should go for it.
In India, there is an increasing demand and scope for Portuguese language experts in industries such as finance, accounting, technology, technical support, IT/ITES, tourism, and education. Language proficiency can lead to many job opportunities with multinational corporations in Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
