Portuguese language in Africa The nation-states with Portuguese as an official language in Africa are referred to by the acronym PALOP () and include the following: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese is a primarily urban language having a reduced presence in rural areas, except for in Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, where the language is more widespread. South Africa also has approximately 300,000 speakers of Portuguese, primarily settlers from Madeira and white Angolans and Mozambicans who emigrated from 1975 onwards, following the independence of the former colonies. The civil wars in Angola and Mozambique also resulted in
Portuguese people living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. Portuguese Sephardi Jews (mostly descendants) are also in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Venezuela, Brazil and Turkey. In Brazil many of the colonists were also originally Sephardi Jews, who, converted, were known as New Christians. In the United States, there are Portuguese communities in New Jersey, the New England states, and California. Springfield, Illinois once possessed the largest Portuguese Community in the Midwest. In the Pacific, Hawaii has a sizable Portuguese element that goes back 150 years (see Portuguese Americans),