Being aware of the preferences of the Portuguese, or the lack thereof, in relation to national authors and artists, can be an important tool for assessing the health of the country's culture.
In the "Cultural References" section of the Barometer Gerador Qmetrics 2021, we analyzed which actors, musical artists, visual artists, writers, directors and comedians the Portuguese admire the most. Today, we tell you what the results were in the area of writing.
For the third consecutive year, José Saramago is the leading literary figure in Portugal. This year, Fernando Pessoa occupies second place, followed by José Rodrigues dos Santos. He is the only author, besides Saramago, to consistently remain in the top 3 throughout all the years analyzed, perhaps benefiting from his television exposure.
As we can see from the table below, Fernando Pessoa and Gil Vicente, classics from the National Reading Program, occupy a prominent place in the younger age group.
We also emphasize the near absence of women among the top writers, with the sole exception being Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen.
Every two weeks we dive into the Barometer Gerador Qmetrics to bring you new analyses on the relationship between Portuguese people and culture. Stay tuned for upcoming articles!
O Barometer Gerador Qmetrics is an annual study that analyses Portuguese people’s opinions on culture. First carried out in 2019, this year’s survey focused mainly on the consequences of the pandemic on society and culture. Find out more about the 2021 report here and ask for your full report here.
Summary Technical Sheet
The study universe consists of individuals aged 15 or over, residing in mainland Portugal and the islands. The sample, with 1.200 validated interviews, was stratified by region, sex and age group, in mainland Portugal, and by islands, and distributed in each stratum according to the distribution of the target population in each stratum. The interviews were conducted from March 22 to April 27, 2021, through an online questionnaire using the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) method. The results are presented with a 95% confidence level. The margin of error for the mean on a scale of 1 to 10 is 0,13 points and the margin of error for the proportion is 2,12 percentage points.
