非洲西部外海島國,過去是葡萄牙的殖民地,如今全國人口約為54萬。境內缺乏自然資源,也很難種植經濟作物,所以糧食自給率相當低,大多仰賴進口。不過從1975年建國以來政局相當穩定,加上處於非洲航運要道,所以光是收取往來船隻的外匯就足以維持國家經濟。因為境內資源匱乏,移居外地的維德角人還比住在境內的還多,大多分布在美國、葡萄牙等地。
Year Founded: 1975
Cape Verde is an outlying island nation off the west African coast. It was a former Portuguese colony and now has a population of about 540,000. It suffers from both a lack of natural resources and the inability to grow crops economically. With a fairly low food self-sufficiency ratio, the country relies mostly on imports for its food supply. It has maintained quite good political stability since its founding in 1975. As it is situated on major African shipping routes, just the foreign currency income generated by collecting fees from docking vessels alone is enough to sustain Cape Verde’s economy. Due to its lack of natural resources, the population of expatriate Cape Verdeans who have relocated abroad is even higher than the native population with a majority of them living in countries like the United States and Portugal.