Portage is a town in the southwest corner of Livingston County, New York, United States.

The name of the town stems from the need to portage (carry) canoes around the falls of the Genesee River.

[3] The ancestral home of the Haudenosaunee, European American settlers arrived in the Portage area by the early 1800s.

The Erie Railroad Company built a wooden trestle bridge over the Genesee River just above the Upper Falls in the mid-1800s.

[6] Immediately after the fire, officials of the Erie Railroad Company moved quickly to replace the wooden bridge with one built of iron and steel.

To the south are the towns of Hume, Granger and Grove in Allegany County.

16.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.