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Statistics
Capital:	Areguá
Area:	2,465 km²
Inhabitants:	1,363,399 ''(2002)''
Pop. density:	553 inh./km²
ISO 3166-2:	PY-11
Map
Map of Paraguay highlighting the department

'Central' is a department in Paraguay. The capital is Areguá.

Contents

Limits

Geography

Education

Economy

Political division

External link

Limits

★ North: the departments of Cordillera and Presidente Hayes.

★ West: Paraguay River

★ East: Paraguarí Department

★ South: Ñeembucú Department

Geography

The mountainous area of Altos and the bodies of water such as the Paraguay and the Salado rivers, the lakes Ypacaraí and Ypoá, and the pond Cabral are part of the natural limits in Central. These along with other regions in the south section generate a good potential of resources for the diverse activities such as tourism and even agriculture.

Education

Central is one of the most benefited departments in terms of attendance in both elementary and higher education, with over 84% of assistance by people of age between 7 and 18. There is a predominance of assistance of males over females, by a margin of 6%. The attendance of public schools is greater, with 69.9% of students attending them, while the resting 30.1% attend private schools. In the Central department there are around 750 elementary education institutions and close to 350 higher education institutions. In the city of San Lorenzo resides the Universidad Nacional de Asunción which is a state-run University.

Economy

Of the 3049 industrial plants in the Paraguayan territory, 1558 are found in this department. The intrustrial production includes the processing of food, furniture, clothing, pharmaceutical production, metallurgic, plastic and ceramics. The city of Villeta is home to a large number of industries. Central is the second biggest economy of Paraguay, and occupies the second place in attraction of inversions from other countries. Only 62% of the population is considered economically active.

Political division

The department is divided in 19 districts:
# Areguá
# Capiatá
# Fernando de la Mora
# Guarambaré
# Itá
# Itauguá
# Juan Augusto Saldívar
# Lambaré
# Limpio
# Luque
# Mariano Roque Alonso
# Ñemby
# Nueva Italia
# San Antonio District
# San Lorenzo
# Villa Elisa
# Villeta
# Ypacaraí
# Ypané
Becoming effective on July 2 1993 Areguá has become capital of the department. Previously it was administrated from the national capital Asunción.

External link

★ Central Info (in Spanish)