Sao Tome and Principe

Sao Tome and Principe: population and cities

Population

Population

According to Countryaah website, São Tomé and Príncipe has around 210,000 residents, the majority of whom live on São Tomé. The population increases by about 3% per year. Infant and child mortality is very high at around 7.5%. The life expectancy of women is 67.3 years, that of men 63.5 years.

Ethnic groups

The country's population is made up of around 88% Africans, i.e. descendants of West African Bantu. 10% of the islanders are mulattos and only 2% are European. Altogether there are seven ethnic groups on the island, some of which go back to peoples who have come to the islands since 1485. The Mestiços are descendants of the Portuguese colonial rulers and African slaves who came to the islands from Benin, Gabon and the Congo in the early years of settlement. They are also known as Filhos da Terra, the sons/children of the country.

The Angolares are descendants of the Angolan slaves and today they mainly live from fishing. The Serviçais are contract workers from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde who only live temporarily on the islands. The Tongas are the Serviçais children born on the islands, while the Europeans are predominantly made up of Portuguese. Finally there are the Asians, especially the Chinese.

Religious

affiliation About 80% of the population are Catholics and 10% Protestants. There are also New Apostolic Christians and followers of natural religions, so-called animists.

National languages

The official language in São Tomé and Príncipe is Portuguese. It is spoken by about 95% of the islanders. However, there are another three national languages that are used as colloquial languages and are Creole (Crioulo) languages based on the Portuguese or Western Bantu languages. Forro is spoken by 85% of people, Angolar by 3% and Principense by around 0.1%. French is also taught in schools.

Capital and other cities

São Tomé

About 60,000 people live in the capital and by far the largest city of São Tomé and Príncipe, which is more than six times as many as in the second largest city on the island. The port city named after the holy apostle Thomas nestles picturesquely on the northeast coast of the island of São Tomé and is an important export port for cocoa, copra and bananas. São Tomé was founded by the Portuguese in 1485 and is centered around a cathedral that dates back to the 16th century. The São Sebastião Fort from 1575 is also well worth seeing. Today the São Tomé National Museum is housed there. The city also includes the São Tomé and Príncipe International Airport. There are also numerous Portuguese colonial buildings in the small capital of São Tomé.

Neves

Located on the northwest coast of São Tomés, the city of Neves with around 7,000 residents and its deep seaport is the country's most important industrial center.

Santo Amaro

Just 8,500 people live in the second largest city of São Tomé and Príncipe. It spreads in the Lobata District.

Santo Antonio

Santo Antonio has about 1,500 residents and is the capital of the island of Príncipe. The city has very interesting Portuguese colonial villas.

Sao Tome and Principe: geography, map

Defined by DigoPaul, located off West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea - part of the Atlantic - the archipelago of volcanic origin consists of the main islands São Tomé and Príncipe as well as a few small, mostly uninhabited rocky islands. The landscape is rugged and mostly covered by forest.

The island state of São Tomé and Príncipe covers a total area of 1,001 km². Thereof:

• Forest

  Around 90% of the country is forested. Around a third of this is primary forest (primeval forest), secondary forest (artificially planted) and shadow forest (shadow trees in coffee and cocoa plantations).

• Fields and fields

  Around 10% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for growing cocoa, oil palms, bananas, coffee and coconuts.

• Mountains

  The islands are part of a volcanic chain and are therefore very mountainous.

Due to its island location, São Tomé and Príncipe have no land borders with other states.

But the island state has a coast to the Atlantic Ocean with a total length of around 210 km.

Tidal range

In the mean tidal range is around 2.50 m. You can find detailed explanations of ebb and flow under tides, ebb and flow, general.

Compare

The world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.

Longitude and latitude

São Tomé and Príncipe extend over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time

For São Tomé and Príncipe the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without daylight saving time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there and a plus sign that it is later than after CET:

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in São Tomé

São Tomé is located at a north latitude of around 20 ° and thus in the tropics.

If the declination of the sun has a value of 20 ° N, the sun is vertical there. This happens twice a year, roughly 14 days before June 21st and then again 14 days after June 21st (for details see position of the sun).

Mountains

The highest mountain on São Tomé is the Pico de Sao Tomé with a height of 2,024 m.

Another high mountain is the Pico Kabumbé with a height of 1,403 m.

The Pico de Príncipe, the highest point on the island of Príncipe, has a height of 927 m.

rivers and lakes

There are no larger rivers or larger lakes on the islands.

Islands

The state consists of the main islands São Tomé with an area of 859 km² and Príncipe with an area of 142 km², as well as the smaller islands:

• Convertibles
• Gago Coutinho
• Pedras Tinhosas
• Rolhas and some tiny islands