Greater Paraná Area

Paraná urban agglomeration (AGP, as for its initials in Spanish) is a medium-sized center-east urban area of Argentina. The AGP has a diversified economic structure. It is a regional center with specialization in commerce and services and the primary sector of economy. Its location adjacent to the Paraná River offers alternatives for tourism—activity that is currently being developed with great success. AGP was developed in 2010. It can be pointed out that it presents a moderately favorable situation with regard to the total of the departments of the country. This is derived from the low rate of population with incomplete primary education; the relatively high rate of population with complete university education, always in the context of the rest of the Argentine departments; the medium to low infant mortality rate; and the low rate of population without social security. In the housing dimension, low relative rates of housing without toilets and overcrowding were observed. Finally, if we consider the positive environmental indicators of NRR and SRR, although attenuated by a high score in EP, the quality of life in the urban agglomeration is far from being homogeneous among social groups and therefore among the different areas that compose it. The spatial distribution of the quality of life pertaining to each area is clearly distinguished and responds, at least in part, to a sort of gradient from the center to the periphery. However, there are exceptions to this generality, mainly in relation to the specific characteristics of the location and urban history of Paraná. Material and social asymmetries are exhibited with respect to education, health, housing, and the environment, evidencing a typical pattern of a fragmented city.