Porto Santo Island is a Portuguese island 43 km northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is the northernmost and the easternmost island of the Madeira Archipelago. The municipality has no land boundaries and is encircled by the Atlantic Ocean. Administratively, it is part of the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The length of the island is about 11 km and width is about 6 km. The population in 2001 was 4,474 with a density of 106.1/km².
The main urban area – which is one of only five Portuguese municipalities that have only one parish – is the city of Vila Baleira, also known as the city of Porto Santo. The island has an airport which serves flights to Funchal, which is only a 15-minute flight away. The nearest place is Machico on the island of Madeira to the southwest, which serves as its port to Funchal. The main industry of Porto Santo Island is tourism.
The island’s geography includes farmlands in the southern and central parts and further to the south a long shoreline with a few beaches, forests and grasslands to the west, rocky ledges and cliffs with a longer coastline to its north, forests to the northeast, drylands with grasses to the northern part and mountains along the northeastern part with about five to six main mountaintops with a few grasslands.
