According to the most comprehensive and updated scientific work done about the topic, the 2025 Ethnologue, ThePortuguese language is spoken in Asia exclusively by a very small community of speakers, generally L2 speakers, which amount to approximately 320.000 total users.[1] These speakers are distributed through regions which formerly served as colonies to Portugal, notablyMacau andEast Timor where the language is official albeit not widely spoken, or spoken by immigrants, notably theBrazilians in Japan, where quite possibly the greatest native Portuguese speaking community in Asia is located, as well as by someAfro-Asians andLuso-Asians. InLarantuka, Indonesia andDaman and Diu, India, Portuguese has a religious connotation. According to the Damanese Portuguese-Indian Association, there are 10 – 12,000 Portuguese speakers in the territory.[2] The ethnologue prognostic, however, is much more grim and suggests Portuguese is almost entirely dying out in India, with only a student community of 1.500 L2 speakers.[3]Statistics regarding this topic are vastly variable, in such a way that the figure of total speakers in Asia can be much higher if one chooses to rely on the East Timorese census data (2015/2022), which points out that up to 30-60% of Timorese people have some capability in Portuguese, either at reading, speaking or writing, depending on the source. If this statistic is taken into account, the figure of Asian total speakers of Portuguese can be as high as 1.1 million speakers. The comprehensive study done by Ethnologue however indicates that the proficiency in Portuguese demonstrated by the Timorese may be largely rudimentary and the 63.000 fluent speakers is more certain.
Bilingual sign in MacauPortuguese and Chinese, seen on this street sign, are official languages in MacauMultilingual sign in Japanese, Portuguese, and English inOizumi,Japan. Return immigration ofJapanese Brazilians has led to a large Portuguese-speaking community in the town.[4]
India: The state ofGoa was a part of thePortuguese Empire until 1961. India participated in theJogos da Lusofonia in 2006 and 2014. Goa is awaiting the permission of the Indian Government to join the CPLP as an observer.[5] In Goa, most of the relatively few speakers of Portuguese are older people. The Union Territory ofDadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was also part ofPortuguese India. As in Goa, the dwindling number of Portuguese speakers are also older people. Daman and Diu are also home toIndo-Portuguese Creoles. It is estimated that there are 3% – 5% of fluent speakers of Portuguese in Goa, Daman and Diu. The language is still spoken by about 10,000 people, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa.[6]
Malaysia andSingapore: The Malaysian state ofMalacca and city-state of Singapore are homes to theGente Kristang a community of Eurasians who claim Portuguese descent and speakPapia Kristang, a Portuguese-lexified Creole. ThePortuguese settlement at Malacca is a source of tourism for the state and the Lusophone heritage is visible in cuisine, architecture and folklore of the Kristang people. Pending approval from the Malaysian Government, Malacca may join the CPLP as an associate observer.
Macau: Portuguese is a co-official language alongside Chinese in the Chinesespecial administrative region ofMacau. It has become the centre for Portuguese learning in Asia and has become the focus through which China relates diplomatically to the member states of CPLP. Macau was the host city for the first Lusophone games in 2006. While theMacanese Language is by now critically endangered with less than a hundred speakers, the number of speakers of Portuguese has also decreased since the handover in 1999. But enrollments for private Portuguese classes have tripled, to 1,000, since 2002; that prompted public schools here to offer Portuguese, drawing more than 5,000 students.[7] It is now estimated that about 3% of the population speak Portuguese as their first language, while 7% professes fluency.[8]
East Timor: The Southeast Asian country added Portuguese as an official language as it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. According to a 2004 census, 36 percent of respondents said they had "a capability in Portuguese".[9] The inter-ethnic lingua franca,Tetum has a large number of loanwords derived from Portuguese making the latter relatively easy to learn for speakers of the former.
Various regions inAsia have expressed interest in participating in theCommunity of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). The Malaysian state of Malacca, Macau, and the Indian state of Goa have all applied for observer or associate member status and are awaiting the permission of the Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian governments, respectively. East Timor joined the CPLP shortly after its independence at the turn of the 21st century.Indonesia,South Korea andTaiwan have also expressed interest in joining the CPLP.
In Asia, StandardEuropean Portuguese (português-padrão) forms the basis for the written and spoken norm, exclusively to East Timor and Macau.[11][12][13]
