page_title: Cape Verde
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Cape Verde / Society / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: Español: Demografía de Cabo Verde Português: Demografia de Cabo Verde English: Cape Verde's population (1961-2003). Y-axis: Number of inhabitants in thousands
context_page_description: Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country in the central Atlantic Ocean. The ten volcanic islands in its archipelago have a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres. The capital Praia, on the southern coast of Santiago island, lies approximately 650 kilometres west of Dakar, Senegal on the Cape Verde Peninsula, the westernmost point of continental Africa. Cape Verde forms part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Savage Isles.
  The archipelago remained uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. Ideally located for a role in the Atlantic slave-trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The suppression of the Atlantic slave-trade in the 19th century led to economic decline and emigration. Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for shipping routes.
context_section_description: The official Census recorded that Cape Verde had a population of 512,096 in 2013. A large proportion (236,000) of Cape Verdeans live on the main island, Santiago.
  The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered it in 1456. The modern population of Cape Verde descends from the mixture of European settlers and African slaves who were brought to the islands to work on Portuguese plantations. Most Cape Verdeans are therefore mulattos, also called mestiços in Portuguese. Another term is creole, meaning those of mixed native-born African and native-born European descent.
  European input included Spaniards and Italian seamen who were granted land by the Portuguese Empire, followed by Portuguese settlers and exiles, as well as Portuguese Muslims (ethnic Moors) and Portuguese Jews (ethnic Sephardim). Both of these religious groups were victims of the Inquisition. Other immigrants came from places such as the Netherlands, France, Britain, the Arab countries (especially Lebanon and Morocco), China (especially from Macau), India, Indonesia, South America, and North America (including people of Portuguese and African descent) and were absorbed into the mestiço population.
  Cape Verde's population in the 21st century is mostly creole; the capital city Praia accounts for a quarter of the country's population. Over 65% of the population in the archipelago live in urban centers, and the literacy rate is 89% (i.e., 93,3% among men aged 15 and above and 84,7% among women aged 15 and above) according to the 2017 National Statistics Bureau data. Many Cape Verdeans have since emigrated, mainly to the United States and Europe.
  A genetic study revealed that the ancestry of the population in Cape Verde is predominantly European in the male line and West African in the female line; counted together the percentage is 56% African and 44% European. The high degree of genetic and ethnic mixture of individuals is a result of centuries of migration.
caption: Cape Verde's population, (1961–2003)
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