Dataset and API with all cities in Portugal

The database is providing a list of Portugal’s villages, towns and cities. It contains cities of all sizes in about 800 rows. Each of the records in the database is providing information about the entity including ASCII format name, geolocation, elevation, population and time zone.

Are you ready to use APIs? These can benefit you in multiple ways including;

• Developers are allowed to use this database and retrieve data via API.
• REST and GraphQL APIs can be used to fetch data.
• Databases can be cloned and you can download data in JSON format.

Here are some API examples to fetch data:

• Total number of towns and villages in Portugal
• Top cities by population

Know more about Portugal:

Portugal is officially known as the Portuguese Republic. It is basically a country located in the southwestern Europe on Iberian Peninsula. It is mainland Europe’s westernmost sovereign state that is being bordered by Spain to the east and north, Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. Territory of Portugal also includes Azores and Madeira’s Atlantic archipelagos. However, both of these are autonomous regions containing their own governments. The National and official language of this country is Portuguese.

Historical background of Portugal:

Portugal is known to be one of the oldest nation states on Iberian Peninsula and in Europe as well. Since prehistoric times, its territory has been settled, fought and invaded continuously. The territory is also inhabited by Celtic and pre-Celtic people, visited by Ancient Greeks, Phoenicians-Carthaginians, and even ruled by the Romans followed by the Visigothic Germanic and Suebi peoples’ invasions. After Iberian Peninsula’s conquest by Muslims, a major part of Portugal’s territory became Al-Andalus.

• However, as a country Portugal was founded in 868, and established in early Christian Reconquista. However, it gained prominence in 1128 after São Mamede’s battle.
• The Portugal kingdom was proclaimed following Ourique’s battle in 1139, while gaining independence in 1143 from León.
• During the 15th and 16th century the first commercial empire and global maritime was established in Portugal. That makes it one of the prominent economic, military and political powers.

During this period, it was known to be “Age of Discovery”, with pioneered maritime exploration by Portuguese explorers, with discovery of what became Brazil in 1500. In the same period, the country also monopolized spice trade that divided the world into dominion with Castile’s hemispheres and expanded its military campaigns in Asian regions. However, the prior opulence of Portugal was erased by the events such as the country's occupation during Napoleonic Wars, Lisbon earthquake, and Brazil’s independence. After the deposition of monarchy in the 1910 revolution, the first republic of Portugal was established. But later the Estado Novo authoritarian regime superseded that. Democracy here was restored in 1974 after the Carnation Revolution that ended the Colonial War of Portuguese. After that independence was granted to overseas territories. Macau's handover to China ended what could be considered as the longest-lived colonial empire in 1999.

Portugal at present:

Portugal has a profound influence on its culture, linguistic and architecture globally, with its legacy of various Portuguese-based creoles and 250 million speakers (Portuguese). It is known to be a developed country with high living standards and advanced economy. However, it is ranked in different aspects for following ranks.

• 2nd for moral freedom
• 3rd for peacefulness
• 7th for democracy
• 10th for press freedom
• 15th for stability
• 18th for social progress
• 26th for prosperity

Portugal is also a member of:

• The European Union
• The United Nations
• The Council of Europe
• The Schengen Area

It was a founding member of:

• Portuguese Language Countries’ Community
• The OECD
• NATO
• The eurozone

Cities in Portugal

Here is the list of cities located in Portugal. However, in Portugal city is known to be an honorific term that is being used to give locations meeting specific criteria including:

• Good infrastructure including medical care centers, schools, sports and cultural facilities.
• Minimum number of habitants.
• Any major historical importance.

The 1980’s demographic expansion of the country prompted various towns’ elevation to the status of city. However, as of 2018, about 159 locations are being considered as cities in Portugal. A city is not an administrative division in Portugal; therefore, it does not correspond to a municipality here generally. However, this comes up with an exception of completely urban municipalities including Porto, Lisbon, Entroncamento, São João da Madeira, and Amadora. Paredes Municipality is the most cities’ municipality, which contains four cities.

• Until 1910, a city was proclaimed by a Royal charter, which has happened about 25 times to present cities of Portugal. The Royal Charters were granted to the Portuguese Empire’s cities such as São Paulo in 1711.
• However, during the first Republic of Portuguese, this process was shifted to the parliament, which raised three locations to the city’s category. The dictatorial Estado Novo command declared 7 more cities on the Portuguese mainland and more in the colonies as well, but by government decree this time.
• After the Carnation Revolution in 19 74, declaration of the cities to the parliament and now Portugal is containing 156 cities. While, one of the major consequences here was the title of “City” is no longer having the prestige that it once had.

Since the time when Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1128, 8 locations have always been considered as cities. These locations are including:

• Braga
• Lamego
• Coimbra
• Porto
• Viseu
• Évora
• Silves
• Lisbon

Guarda is the very first city that was proclaimed in 1911 as a part of independent Portuguese kingdom. However, the most recent cities of Portugal are including:

• Albergaria-a-Velha
• Lagoa (Azores)
• Alfena
• São Pedro do Sul
• Borba
• Valença
• Samora Correia
• Senhora da Hora

While on the other hand, when it comes to the most populated cities of Portugal then these are the following:

• Lisboa / Lisbon
• Vila Nova de Gaia
• Porto
• Braga
• Queluz
• Coimbra
• Amadora
• Agualva-Cacém
• Setúbal
• Almada
• Viseu
• Rio Tinto
• Aveiro
• Ponta Delgada
• Portimão
• Faro
• Évora
• Barreiro
• Guimarães
• Leiria
• Odivelas

Knowing these facts have certainly given you pretty enough knowledge about Portugal.

Data Sources

• Wikipedia
• Geonames