Reliable historians place the date of discovery of the islands between 1460 and 1462 , from a trip of exploration of the African West Coast, made by Portuguese sailors, under the guidance of D. Henrique. On returning from one of these trips, António Noli and Diogo Afonso found on May 1st of 1460, the first island of the archipelago, which they called São Tiago, in honor of the Catholic Church saint celebrated on that day. On the same trip were founded the islands of Maio, Fogo, Sal and Boa Vista, with the remaining two islets Branco and Raso founded by Diogo Afonso, Infante D. Fernando squire between 1461 and 1462.

The Republic of Cape Verde is an archipelago located along the coast of West Africa, between latitudes 14º 23 'and 17º 12' North and longitude 22º 40 'and 25º 22' West.

The Cape Verde archipelago consists of ten islands and eight islets, which form two distinct groups depending on the position against the Aliseo Northeast wind. Thus we have the Barlavento group, which includes the islands of Santo Antão (754 km2), São Vincente (228 km2), Santa Luzia (34 km2), São Nicolau (342 km2), Sal (215 km2), Boa Vista (622 Km2 ) and the islets Raso and Branco; and the Sotavento group constituted by the islands of Maio (267 km2), São Tiago (992 km2), Fogo (477 km2), Brava (65 km2) and the islets Seco or Rombo.

Most of the islands are of volcanic origin, rugged, with higher altitude points in the Islands of Fogo (Pico, in an active volcano with 2829 meters) at Santo Antão (Topo de Coroa, with 1979 meters) and São Tiago (Pico de Antonia and Serra Malagueta with maximum altitude of 1373 meters). The islands of Sal, Boa Vista and Maio are flat and surrounded by extensive beaches.

Cape Verde is located on the western edge of the Sahel and the weather has characteristics of aridity and semi-aridity. The average annual temperature is between 22ºC (71ºF) and 26ºC (79ºF).

Cape Verdeans are descendants of former African slaves and their Portuguese masters. Much of Cape Verdeans emigrated abroad, mainly to the United States, Portugal and Brazil, so that there are more Cape Verdeans living abroad than at home.

It is remarkably young in its age structure, with forty percent of the population between 0 and 14 years (estimated 2005) and only 6 percent over 65 years. The average age of the Cape Verdean population is around 24 years.

The average life expectancy, which in 1975 was around 63, reached in 2003, 71 years (67 for men, 75 for women). The infant mortality rate, which in 1975 was around 110 per thousand, represented in 2004 a value of 20 per thousand (44 thousand in 1990, 26 per thousand in 2000), a value lower than the rates in other countries yield similar category.

The rate of population growth, dependent on migratory flows, stood in the decade 1990-2000 (date of the last census), at about 2.4 percent, a figure that has remained constant until 2005. From then on it is expected that it stabilizes around 1.9 percent. Households in 2006 were made up on average by 4.9 members (5 in rural areas and 4.5 in urban areas).

Unlike African countries, there is no ethnic groups in Cape Verde. By contrast, the historical trajectory of the country included from the beginning, a process of formation of social classes. At this point, you can see the absence of a "bourgeoisie", but the existence of various types of "petty bourgeoisie" numerically significant. The vast majority of the population is, however, consists of the peasantry and some working class

Through the above table illustrates the evolution of population growth in Cape Verde, from 1960 to 2015.

The Cape Verdean economy is mainly based  in the growing tourism and foreign investment, which benefit from warm weather all year, diverse landscape and cultural wealth, especially in music. Historically, the name "Cabo Verde" has been used to refer to the archipelago and, since independence in 1975 is used to refer to the country. In 2013, the local government has determined that the name in Portuguese “Cabo Verde " would be used for official purposes, such as in United Nations (UN).

Cape Verde is an archipelago state with an underdeveloped economy and suffering with a lack of resources alternatives and population growth. The main economic sectors are agriculture, marine wealth, provision of services (corresponding to 80 percent of gross domestic product) and more recently, tourism (which has gained increasing relevance). The main tourist islands are Sal and Boa Vista.

The Prime Minister, José Maria Neves highlighted during the official presentation of the UNDP report on Human Development Index (HDI) of countries compared to 2014 the country's development in this area, as evidenced by "successive" reports that show a development sustained and attest to the great work of Cape Verde and Cape Verdeans in the field of human development and that puts Cape Verde in above the average in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East of development Countries.

José Maria Neves stressed that the report assess Cape Verde positively with respect to HDI (with 0.636 points) when the average of our sub-region is located in 0.502. More importantly, Cape Verde is rated positively even in the whole of Medium Development Countries, which is above the average of these countries, which is 0.614.

• United Nations (UN)
• European Union (EU)
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• International Red Cross (ICRC)
• Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• UNESCO
• Luxembourg cooperation

The strategic location of Cape Verde at the crossroads of sea and air routes in the middle of the Atlantic has been reinforced by significant improvements at Mindelo’s harbor (Porto Grande) and the international airports of Sal and Praia. A new international airport opened in Boa Vista in December 2007 and another on the island of São Vicente (Cesaria Evora Airport) opened in late 2009. The ship repair facilities at Mindelo were opened in 1983.

The major ports are on the islands of Mindelo and Praia, but all other islands have smaller port facilities. In addition to the international airport of Sal, airports have been built in all the inhabited islands. All but Brava and Santo Antão. The archipelago has 3.050 km of roads, of which 1.010 km are paved, most using cobblestone.

The Country's economic future prospects depend heavily on the maintenance of aid flows, the encouragement of tourism, remittances from abroad, job outsourcing to neighboring African countries and the momentum of the government's development program.

Video of Santo Antão - Cape Verde

Santo Antao from Jules Vervust on Vimeo.