Continental Portugal
Continental Portugal ( Portuguese : Portugal Continental ) is the name for the part of Portugal that lies on the European mainland .
Continental Portugal , together with the Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira, forms the top division of Portugal in the NUTS system. It comprises 278 of the 308 municípios , 96.6% of the area and 10,144,940 of the 10,637,713 inhabitants of Portugal (95.1%).
The name became particularly popular after 1975, after Portugal had given its African colonies independence. Before that, the name Metrópole ("Metropolis") was common.