Accra is the capital, the largest city, and the administrative, communications, and economic center of Ghana, with an estimated urban population of 2.27 million as of 2012. It is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous. It stretches along the Ghanaian Atlantic coast and extends north into Ghana's interior. Originally built around a port, it served as the capital of the British Gold Coast between 1877 and 1957, and contains a number of public buildings reflecting its transition from a nineteenth-century suburb of Victoriasborg to the modern metropolis it is today.
Accra is one of the wealthiest and most modern cities on the African continent, with a high quality of living by African standards. It serves as the Greater Accra region's economic and administrative hub. It is furthermore a centre of a wide range of nightclubs, restaurants, and hotels.