Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States.

Most of its land area lies on Aquidneck Island, which it shares with Middletown and Newport.

Part of the census-designated place of Melville lies within the town boundaries.

Portsmouth was settled in 1638 by a group of religious dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Dr. John Clarke, William Coddington, and Anne Hutchinson.

Roger Williams convinced the settlers that they should go there instead of settling in the Province of New Jersey, where they had first planned on going.

Adjacent to Raytheon is the Newport Car Museum which opened in 2017 and receives 50,000 visitors a year.

[5] On September 21, 2017, plaques were unveiled by Roger Williams University, along with Al Gomes and Connie Watrous of Big Noise, at the Baypoint Inn & Conference Center honoring music icons The Beach Boys.

The concert was the first-ever appearance of South African Ricky Fataar as an official member of the band and Filipino Billy Hinsche as a touring member, essentially changing The Beach Boys' live and recording act's line-up into a multi-cultural group.

Diversity is a credo of Roger Williams University, which is why they chose to celebrate this moment in the band's history.

8.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The racial makeup of the town was 94.57% White, 1.35% African American, 1.58% Asian, 0.21% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.04% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.40% of some other race, and 1.86% of two or more races.