page_title: Community of Portuguese Language Countries
section_title: Scope
hierarchical_section_title: Community of Portuguese Language Countries / Scope
caption_attribution_description: English: Tomb of the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões. Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Lisboa.
context_page_description: The Community of Portuguese Language Countries, also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth, is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portuguese is an official language. The CPLP operates as a privileged, multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments, economies, non-governmental organizations, and peoples of the Lusofonia. The CPLP consists of 9 member states and 19 associate observers, located in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
  The history of the CPLP began when it was founded in 1996, in Lisbon, by Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe, nearly two decades after the beginning of the decolonization of the Portuguese Empire. Following the independence of Timor-Leste in 2002 and the application by Equatorial Guinea in 2014, both of those countries became members of the CPLP. Macau, Galicia, and Uruguay are formally interested in full membership and another 17 countries across the world are formally interested in associate observer status.
context_section_description: The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to 267 million people located across the globe but having a common language, a shared history, and some cultural similarities. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,742,000 square kilometres (4,148,000 sq mi), which is more than twice as large as the European Union 4,475,757 square kilometres (1,728,099 sq mi), but with a little more than half of the population.
caption: The tomb of Luís de Camões is a revered space in the Lusofonia. Lusophone heads of state pay respects here on visits to Portugal.
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