Portuguese people are an ethnic group indigenous to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and their predominant religion is Christianity, mainly Roman Catholicism.

Portuguese descend from the pre-Celtic, proto-Celtic and Celtic peoples who inhabited the western Iberian Peninsula, such as the Celtici, Lusitanians (proto-Celtic / para-Celtic) and the Gallaeci (Celtic), forming the core identity of the nation, who were then Latinized by the Romans. Other minor segments which left little influence on the population in subsequent periods include the Suebi, the Buri, the Visigoths and the Moors.

Due to the large historical extent of the Portuguese Empire and the colonization of territories in Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as historical and recent emigration, Portuguese communities can be found in many diverse regions around the globe, and a large Portuguese diaspora exists.

Portuguese people are a key factor to the Age of Exploration, discovering several lands unknown to the Europeans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.