A ''bairro'' () is a Portuguese word for a quarter or a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

or, sometimes, a district which is within a city or town. It is commonly used in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and other Portuguese-speaking places. ''Bairro'' is cognate with Germanic ''berg'', ''burg'', ''borg'', ''burgh'', ''borough'' etc., and Spanish ''

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city, usually delimited by functional (e.g. residenti ...

'', all of which descend from the same Proto-Indo European root. In Brazil, the word is frequently applied to urban areas in cities, in which the ''bairros'' are generally defined only unofficially and have rough borders, without any official administrative function. In some cities, however, the ''bairros'' have defined territorial limits set by the municipal government, but most follow popular definition by its citizens. In Portugal, the word is used with the same meaning as in Brazil, defining a non administrative urban area, frequently without clear borders, an example being the Bairro Alto in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. Occasionally, a Portuguese ''bairro'' can coincide with an administrative '' freguesia'' (civil parish). In the past, the cities of Lisbon and Porto were divided in large administrative divisions - each encompassing several ''freguesias'' - which were also named ''bairros''. In Mozambique, ''bairros'' are administrative subdivisions of urban districts with important functions in the identification of the residents and determine the attributes of the area in regard to construction or agriculture, much like zoning. They are directed by ''secretários''. In Guinea-Bissau, ''bairros'' are first the peri-urban quarters of the capital Bissau beyond the old city centre (Praça), e.g. Bairro de Ajuda, Bairro Militar, Pessak, Quelele, Luanda, Mpantcha, and by extension quarters of smaller towns throughout the country.

See also