Praia
Cabo Verde's capital (159,000 pop.) housing government and services on Santiago, while tourism concentrates on other islands.
Praia is Cabo Verde's capital and largest city—159,000 residents occupying the southeastern coast of Santiago, the archipelago's most populous island. As the political, economic, and cultural nucleus of this Atlantic island nation, Praia concentrates government ministries, the National Assembly, and the Presidential Palace within a compact urban core.
The economy runs on public administration and services rather than tourism. Unlike Sal and Boa Vista's beach resort model, Praia functions as administrative and commercial hub. The Port of Praia connects Santiago to other islands and international shipping. Nelson Mandela International Airport provides the country's second-busiest gateway. Trade, government employment, and gradually growing tourism drive economic activity.
Santiago itself hosts nearly 300,000 residents—half the national population—and continues growing faster than other islands. This demographic concentration creates urban challenges (housing, infrastructure) while generating economies of scale in services and labor markets.
The biological pattern is centralized metabolism: Praia processes administrative, commercial, and transport flows for the entire nation despite lacking the tourism assets that generate export revenue. This creates a peculiar economic structure where the capital depends on fiscal transfers from tourism-generated taxes collected elsewhere in the archipelago.