Prince Albert, South Africa

Prince Albert was founded in 1762[4] on a farm called Queekvalleij.[5] Originally known as Albertsburg, when it obtained municipal status in 1845 it was renamed Prince Albert in honour of Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg.[5] Prince Albert was historically part of the Cape Colony.

During the latter part of the century, a nugget of gold was discovered on a farm in the area. Due to the fact that a similar occurrence had led to the Gold Rush in the Witwatersrand, this new discovery precipitated a similar population boom. However, the gold yield turned out to be minimal.[5] Prince Albert became a British garrison during the Second Boer War in 1899. The town was the site of several clashes between the British and the Boers during this period.[5]

The town has a GINI coefficient of 0.56[6] ,and a Human Development Index of 0.68.[6] Around 20% of the town's working age population is unemployed.[6] The total size of the town's GDPR in 2015 was R418 million[6] (roughly equivalent to US$34.3 million).[7] The three largest economic sectors by value in the town's economy being government services (21%), agriculture (19%), and retail and tourism (15%). Agriculture provides about one third of all jobs in the town with retail and tourism being the second largest employer by sector accounting for 18% of all jobs provided.[6]

The town hosts a number of private art galleries and relatively large community of artists.[3] Since the mid-1990s the town has experienced an economic boom which has been driven by the increasing number of artists and retirees moving to it.[3]

Prince Albert has a small local population, mainly engaged in farming and tourism. The village has thirteen National Monuments.