With a population of 21,035 (in 2011), the second largest administrative authority on the island of Terceira, it covers an area of 162.29 square kilometres (62.66 sq mi), that extends from the northern coast halfway into the interior.

The growth of the woad industry and export wheat market concentrated along the fertile Ramo Grande area, allowed Praia to grow rapidly.

By the last quarter of the 16th century, Gaspar Frutuoso (the celebrated Azorean historian), wrote of Praia in these terms: ...and shortly there is the town of Praia, noble and sumptuous and with good buildings, built in a very good style, circled by a good wall, with its forts and bulwarks all around, populated by nobles and older residents, with one of the older settlements of the island, circled by famous and rich farms of nobles and grandiose nobility, with a parish and sumptuous church of three naves, with a vaulted main chapel and porticoes and pillars of well worked marble, all circled by chapels of the grand first-born...its principal invocation is to the Holy Cross...where the house of Mercy and hospital, with two churches, one the hospital of the Holy Spirit and the other to Our Lady, with a nave down the middle...; it's a famous monastery of Saint Francis where there still continue to reside ten or twelve religious, where there are many chapels of the grand first-born similar to the above indicated; three monasteries for nuns, the more principal of the those is to Jesus..., with forty nuns with black veils and two, one of Our Lady of the Light and the other Our Lady of the Stigmata, give obedience and observation to Saint Francis, where there are few religious[3]During the Iberian Union, King Philip II of Spain ordered an armada to Terceira to impose the governorship of Ambrósia de Aguiar Coutinho on his unruly subjects in the Azores and facilitate shipping to the Indies.

During the Restoration of Portuguese Independence, the citizenry of Praia acclaimed King John IV, when Francisco Ornelas da Câmara arrived in Terceira.

Praia da Vitória occupies the northern and eastern coasts of Terceira, bisecting it from northwest to southeast, through a varied geomorphology.

Praia da Vitória is a services, fishing and agricultural municipality and boasts a large marina, popular with the yachting community, with the only sizeable sand beach on Terceira.

Praia da Vitoria hosts an annual triathlon and is known for its unique style of bullfighting, tourada à corda.