Santiago is located approximately 155 km (96 mi) northwest of the capital Santo Domingo with an average altitude of 178 m (584 ft).

[2] Santiago’s metropolitan area population composed by the municipalities of Santiago-Licey Al Medio-Baitoa-Tamboril-Puñal-Villa González is 959,498 as of 2022, making it the second largest of the Dominican Republic.

Due to its location in the fertile Cibao Valley, it has a robust agricultural sector and is a leading exporter of rum, textiles, and cigars.

[8] Santiago de los Caballeros has historically been an important strategic city in the Dominican War of Independence.

[9] The survivors settled on land belonging to Petronila Jáquez of Minaya, adjacent to the Yaque del Norte, which is the current location of the city's river.

The brief French during the Peace of Basel (which yielded the Spanish part of the island to France in 1795) left its mark on Santiago.

European neoclassicism is represented at the Palace Hall, built between 1892 and 1895, by a Belgian architect named Louis Bogaert.

Santiago de los Caballeros is located on a hilly terrain in the middle of the Cibao Valley in the Central Region of the Dominican Republic, one of the most fertile lands found in the island.

The average temperature varies little in the city, because the tropical trade winds help mitigate the heat and humidity throughout the year.

Santiago and the rest of the country are in the Caribbean and have a tropical climate, which, when coupled with the city's altitude, 183 meters above sea level, causes cloudy conditions to persist through much of the year.

[19] The Mercado Modelo on Calle del Sol is a shopping center where there are various stores of handicrafts and native articles made by hand.

The role of Santiago as a regional development hub and that of La Vega, Moca, San Francisco de Macorís and Puerto Plata as “hinge” cities for interregional articulation, give it a unique character in the national territory.

While the first articulates regional, national and international processes that generate agro-productive wealth and services, the other three do so with their immediate regions: La Vega with the center of the national territory, San Francisco de Macorís with its immediate surroundings in the east and south, and Moca and Puerto Plata with their northern surroundings.

Economically, Santiago de los Caballeros is the axis of advancement of the northern and central region of the country and has a particular influence on the national economy.

This slowdown may have been related to the decrease in the attraction force of Santiago as a regional nucleus and the loss of local dynamism, generating changes in population distribution.

[23] In the decade from 1993 to 2002 the anual growth rate was 3.61%, which constituted an increase of 141,955 more people, and reached a population of 507,418 inhabitants in 2002 while the urban area was 602,701 inhabitans.

Analyzing the growth trend and the role that Santiago has played in the regional configuration of the Cibao, it is understood that beyond the political-administrative borders, Santiago has a functional relationship with settlements that directly influence it, located within a radius of 50 kilometers, which includes all the municipalities and municipal districts of its province, in addition to Puerto Plata, Mao, La Vega and Moca.

Its indirect influence reaches distant localities such as Dajabón, in the Northwest Line (150 kilometers), even to Cap Haitien, the main urban center of the northern part of the Republic of Haiti.

However, unlike the 2002 census, the districts of Puñal and Sabana Iglesias were excluded of the municipal and urban area population.

[23][29] The population of Santiago de los Caballeros is predominantly young, with 64.28% being made up of people under 34 years of age.

[36][37] According to the 2022 Dominican Republic population census, the sumatory of the municapilties and dritics that composed the metropolitan area of Santiago de los Caballeros is 959,498 inhabitans.

The neo-classical gothic Cathedral of Santiago was built in 1895 by Onofre de Lora, an architect native to the city.

The bridge is named after the five brothers that died in an effort to end Trujillo's regime and dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in the mid 20th century.

Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, after which the monument was renamed the Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración ("Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration" in English), in honor of the Dominican Restoration War of 1863, in which the Dominican Republic regained its independence from Spain.

Museo del Tabaco or The Tobacco Museum which shows manufacturing methods as well as the effect of the tobacco plantations along the city's history, the Museo Histórico Fortaleza San Luis or Historic San Luis Fort Museum which previously served as a municipal prison.,[43] the Museo de los Héroes de la Restauración or Restoration Heroes Museum is currently under construction and houses a display of pictures from the Restoration War from the 1863–1865 battles between the Dominican Government and the Spanish army.

[48] On the same year, Estadio Cibao FC was selected among the only two venues to held FIFA U-17 Women`s World Cup.

Santiago has two stadiums, and the stadiums are The Estadio Cibao home of the Aguilas Cibaeñas and The Gran Arena del Cibao home of Los Metros De Santiago The Female Volleyball Team have claimed two bronze medals[75] in the professional Dominican Volleyball League.

Santiago has share taxis (often called carros públicos or conchos) and private and independent bus owners who form their own routes according to their demands.

It serves destinations such as San Juan, Port-au-Prince, New York City, Miami and Santo Domingo with regular services.

On March 30, 2022, President Luis Abinader formally commenced construction of the first rapid transit system in Santiago De Los Caballeros.