A new report highlights that while Portugal’s literacy level is close to the global average, it remains below that of Scandinavian countries such as Finland, where it reaches 34%.
Literacy training is more prevalent among young people, with 41% in the 18-24 age group, and among those with higher education, at 32%. There is also a significant presence among the less educated, at 26%.
The Digital News Report Portugal 2025, produced annually by the OberCom – Observatory of Communication since 2015, is published alongside the global report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, UK.
This marks the 10th annual report of the Digital News Report Portugal.
The study indicates that news literacy training encourages more active information behaviors: trained individuals show greater interest in news (60% compared to 50% of the general population), a higher propensity to pay for online news (26% compared to 10%), and a greater tendency to access news websites directly (24% compared to 19%).
In terms of fact-checking practices, those trained in media literacy frequently use official sources (46%), trusted brands (44%), and fact-checkers (28%), showing more diverse use of sources and proactive verification of information accuracy.
These individuals are also more actively involved in the information ecosystem, with 86% stating they engage in news-related activities (reading, commenting, sharing, or discussing news) compared to 74% of the general population.
Nevertheless, indicators such as trust in news, concern about misinformation, and motivations to avoid news do not show significant differences between those with and without media literacy training, suggesting literacy impacts concrete behaviors more than subjective perceptions of the informational environment, according to the report.
The project, with fieldwork conducted by YouGov, surveyed approximately 97,000 internet users globally in 48 countries in 2025. This year, Serbia joined the list of global markets under study, following Morocco’s inclusion in 2024.
The fieldwork was conducted between January 13 and February 24 of this year.
In Portugal, 2,012 individuals were surveyed.
