São Tomé

São Tomé is the capital city of a small island country. The country is called São Tomé and Príncipe.

The city is by the sea, very close to the equator.

São Tomé is the capital of São Tomé and Príncipe, which Universalis calls Africa's smallest state. The country is made of two main islands in the Atlantic, about 220 kilometers northwest of Gabon, just north of the equator. The capital is on the bigger island, also called São Tomé.

In the census of November 2024, 80,647 people were counted in Água Grande, the district whose capital is São Tomé. In the 2012 census the city itself had 66,888 people, far more than any other town in the country.

Universalis: the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is the smallest African state, an archipelago of two islands (São Tomé, 859 km2, capital São Tomé; Príncipe, 142 km2, capital Santo António) and a few islets about 220 km northwest of Gabon; in 2010 the capital held more than a third of the country's 175,800 people.

Instituto Nacional de Estatística (via City Population): Água Grande district (16.5 km2; capital São Tomé) 32,375 (1981), 42,331 (1991), 51,886 (2001), 69,772 (2012) and 80,647 (15 November 2024); the urban area of São Tomé 51,246 (2001) and 66,888 (2012), rank 1, ahead of Neves (8,391) and Santana (7,445).

Look at the big blue bay! Boats float on the water. Red roofs and green trees fill the town.

This photo shows São Tomé from the air on 19 February 2020. The photographer labeled it Ana Chaves Bay. The bay curves around in a wide arc, with small boats and a few ships on the calm water and long piers reaching out from the shore.

In front, wide roads meet at roundabouts between red-roofed houses, white buildings and many green trees. Far away, low hills rise on the left, and two small islands sit on the horizon at the right.

Commons: own work by wsrolim, 19 February 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, with the photographer's Portuguese caption 'Baía de Ana Chaves' and camera coordinates; the file name is a camera-style serial name.

In the picture: the arc of Ana Chaves Bay with small boats, a few larger vessels and piers; the town's red and orange roofs, white buildings and dense tropical trees; several roundabouts joined by broad avenues; a hazy line of hills at upper left and two islets at upper right. Universalis: the islands are of volcanic origin, mountainous, with narrow coastal plains.

People in São Tomé speak Portuguese and a language called forro. Rainforest with special birds covers the mountains.

In São Tomé people speak Portuguese, the official language, and forro, a creole language that grew out of Portuguese, Universalis says.

On the mountain slopes, the rainforest that was never cut down is home to plants and animals found nowhere else, especially birds. Elsewhere, part of the land was turned into plantations, and Universalis says cutting the forest and overusing the land have worn out and washed away the soil in places.

Universalis: on the slopes, the tropical forest that has not been exploited shelters a unique flora and fauna (birds); elsewhere the originally forested land was partly used for plantation agriculture (roças), and deforestation and overexploitation have favored soil exhaustion and erosion. Population 240,254 (2025) for the country; official language Portuguese; spoken language forro, a Portuguese creole.

City Population (census 2024): the country had 209,607 people, of whom 140,801 were counted as urban.