Countries
Key facts
- Capital
- São Tomé
- Region
- Africa, Middle Africa
- Population
- 240,254 (2025)
- Area
- 1,001 km²
- Currency
- São Tomé and Príncipe dobra (STN)
- Languages
- Portuguese
- Calling code
- +239
- Internet domain
- .st
- ISO codes
- ST, STP, 678
- Time zone
- UTC
- United Nations
- Member state
Land and position
São Tomé and Príncipe covers about 1,001 square kilometres. By area it ranks 190th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Hong Kong and a little larger than Turks and Caicos Islands. It has no land border with any other country. Its centre lies at about 1° north, 7° east, in the northern hemisphere.
People
About 240,254 people live in São Tomé and Príncipe (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 187th most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure. On average there are 240 people to each square kilometre. About 69 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 70 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Portuguese. A person from São Tomé and Príncipe is called Sao Tomean.
Money and economy
The currency is the São Tomé and Príncipe dobra (code STN, symbol Db). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 981 million (2025), which is about US$ 4,084 for each person (2025).
Time
São Tomé and Príncipe uses one time zone, UTC (Africa/Sao Tome). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.
Time now: loading
Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.
Largest cities
| City | People |
|---|---|
| São Tomé | 53,300 |
City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.
More in Middle Africa
Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon. See the whole region.
Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.