Central Department

Central

Departamento Central
Central Departamento Central
Department
	Aerial view of Areguá
	Flag Coat of arms
	Location of Central, in red, in Paraguay
	Coordinates: 25°18′S 57°25′W / 25.300°S 57.417°W
Country	Paraguay
Region	Oriental
Department	1906
Renamed	1945
Capital	Areguá
Districts	19 (See list)
Area
• Total	2,465 km2 (952 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	2,297,739
• Density	930/km2 (2,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-04 (AST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-03 (ADT)
ISO 3166 code	PY-11

Central (Spanish: Departamento Central) is a department in Paraguay. The capital is the city of Areguá. Its ISO 3166-2 code is PY-11.

The department has 2,297,739 inhabitants. That is more than any other department of Paraguay. The department is also the smallest of all the departments.

History

The Central Department, known as “Comarca Asuncena”, was the most populated country region in old times.

The towns of this department had different origin. Domingo Martínez de Irala started the towns of Itá, Ypané and Areguá in 1538 and 1539. Villeta was founded by the governor Juan Gregorio Bazán de Pedraza in 1714. Other towns were founded around chapels.

The towns of Nueva Italia, Colonia Thompson and Villa Elisa were already established as agricultural settlements in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. These were mainly settled by immigrants.

Geography

The Central department is in the central western part of the Oriental region. It is on the southern border of the Western region. It surrounds the capital, Asunción.

The department has an area of 2,465 km² (952 sq mi). That is 0.61% of the area of Paraguay. Its estimated population in 2013 was 2,297,739. That gave a population density of 932.1 inhabitants per square kilometre.^[1]

The Central department is relatively flat. It has only small hills. It has several rivers, as the Paraguay river, and streams flow through it. The Ypacaraí and Ypoá lakes are on the borders of the department.

Limits

To the north: Presidente Hayes and Cordillera departments.
To the east: Paraguarí department.
To the south: Ñeembucú department.
To the west: Argentina and the Distrito Capital

Districts

The department is divided in 19 districts:

Districts of the Central department
No.	Districts	Area (km²)	Population^[2] (2015)	Density
1	Areguá	147.67	68,713	465.3
2	Capiatá	82.48	219,840	2,665.4
3	Fernando de la Mora	20.80	163,658	7,868.2
4	Guarambaré	29.82	31,839	1,067.7
5	Itá	183.84	73,979	402.4
6	Itauguá	103.74	97,592	940.7
7	Julián Augusto Saldívar	34.92	51,060	1,462.2
8	Lambaré	26.85	167,787	6,249.1
9	Limpio	114.97	127,221	1,106.6
10	Luque	147.29	258,910	1,757.8
11	Mariano Roque Alonso	39.45	95,506	2,420.9
12	Ñemby	28.86	122,658	4,250.1
13	Nueva Italia	362.71	11,736	32.4
14	San Antonio	25.91	60,875	2,349.5
15	San Lorenzo	56.17	250,646	4,462.3
16	Villa Elisa	17.60	74,564	4,236.6
17	Villeta	875.20	35,944	41.1
18	Ypacaraí	98.52	25,971	263.6
19	Ypané	52.29	46,885	896.6

Economy

Industries include the processing of food, furniture, clothing, pharmaceutical production, metallurgic, plastic and ceramics. The city of Villeta has a large number of industries. Central is the second biggest economy of Paraguay.

Tourism

Laguna de Itá, Itá

The Central Department has many attractions for tourism. Among the most famous natural resources at an international level, is the Lago Ypacaraí. This lake is a very important natural attraction and the town of Areguá. The capital of the department is located on the banks of this lake

Related pages

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 "Compendio Estadístico 2013" (PDF) (in Spanish). Dirección General de Estadísticas, Encuestas y Censos. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
↑ "Proyección de la población por sexo y edad, según distrito. Revisión 2015 (8.3 MB)" (PDF) (in Spanish). DGEEC. 2015. pp. 32–33. Retrieved 12 January 2017.

Other websites

Statoids - Departments of Paraguay

[compendio13-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 "Compendio Estadístico 2013" (PDF) (in Spanish). Dirección General de Estadísticas, Encuestas y Censos. Retrieved 12 January 2017.

[2] "Proyección de la población por sexo y edad, según distrito. Revisión 2015 (8.3 MB)" (PDF) (in Spanish). DGEEC. 2015. pp. 32–33. Retrieved 12 January 2017.

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