1.2 million people identified themselves as Portuguese in the 2000 United States Census (total:  287 million) — making them the 24th largest ethnic group, behind Czechoslavakia and just slightly ahead of Greece.  While Portuguese immigrants settled in many parts of the United States, in only two of the 3,140 counties are they the largest ethnic group, and they are both named Bristol County; one is in Massachusetss and the other in Rhode Island.

Amongst cities with populations over 50,000, the largest three pluralities are in Fall River, New Bedford, and Taunton.  This chart shows the rapid growth of New Bedford and Fall River from 1879 to 1920 due to industrialization, and the dramatic decline afterward as mill work declined.  The slower but steadier growth in Taunton was fueled in part by silver manufacturing and the fact that it is also the county seat for Bristol County, MA, another growth factor.

In Rhode Island, Bristol County is the smallest county, and 20 of its 45 square miles are water; it is rural area of mostly farms and nurseries. 

East Providence, Rhode Island, another city where the Portuguese constitute an ethnic plurality, was originally part of Old Seekonk, Massachusetts; it was ceded to Rhode Island in an 1861 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Collectively, Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island have the largest concentration of people with Portuguese heritage in the United States: almost 270,000 people, mostly from the Azores.  There are also 32,000 who can trace their heritage to Cape Verde. and almost 4,500 to Brazil.  Massachusetts is the only state where, after English, the most spoken language is Portuguese.

There are 26 New England cities (pop. 50,000+) where the Portuguese population is at least double the national average of 0.6%:

Fall River, MA               47.00%

New Bedford, MA                38.60%

Taunton, MA                             27.50%

Pawtucket, RI                          11.60%

Somerville, MA                          7.50%

Warwick, RI                                  6.80%

Lowell, MA                                     5.80%

Danbury, CT                                 5.40%

Cranston, RI                                 5.40%

Providence, RI                            4.00%

Cambridge, MA                         3.10%

Brockton, MA                               3.00%

Bridgeport, CT                            2.90%

Medford, MA                                 2.90%

Chicopee, MA                  2.40%

West Hartford, CT                    2.30%

Malden, MA                                    2.30%

Framingham, MA                      2.20%

Waterbury, CT                             1.90%

Nashua, NH                                   1.60%

West Haven, CT                        1.50%

Weymouth, MA                           1.40%

Haverhill, MA                                 1.30%

Springfield, MA                            1.20%

Hartford, CT                                    1.20%

Lynn, MA                                            1.20%