Agricultural activity
The great amount of precipitations and the important sum of hydro reservations provides this zone’s soils with an excellent quality for extensive cultivation.
In the fruit sector, especially outstanding are the berries production such as raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, ae well as apples and kiwis. In the cereal sector, the main harvests are wheat, corn and rye. In the vegetable sector stands out potatoes. beet-roots and asparaguses.
Regarding the cattle activity, the bovine is the most relevant. As a fact, this region is the first producer at national level of milk and dairy products, such as, powdered milk, cheese, quesillo, butter yogurt and blancmange. All this is due to the development of a high quality and greatly abundant forage for this zone’s stockbreeding.
Fishing
This sector has grown notoriously in the last years since this zone is the first provider of fish-farming mollusks and fishes in the country. In this sector are produced, especially in the provinces of Llanquihue and Chiloe, mussels, trout and salmons. Our country is the second worldwide producer of salmons after Norway.
In regards of mollusks, oysters, mussels and shoe-mussels are extracted, which has allowed the surging of a canning industry.
Besides, open sea species such as tollos (small sharks), groupers, hakes, conger-eels and rays. These surpass the 200.000 tons and are bounded for consuming and fresh and frozen exports.
Human geography
The Census 2002 report points out that 491.040 people live in urban zones and 225.699 at rural areas. This figure reverted the region’s historical situation which registered the Region of the Lagos as the zone with the largest percentage of rural population in the country.
About the gender composition in this region, records point out that the population’s 50, 24% are men and 49, 75 are women.
The most populated cities are: Puerto Montt (175.938), Osorno (132.245), Castro (29.148), Ancud (27.2922), Puerto Varas (22.022), Quellon (13.656) and Calbuco (12.165).
In the educational ambiance, the schooling level reached the 9 years of age, which is an indicator below the national average that is 10, 1 years of age.
In the housing issue, accordingly with the 2002 census, there are in this region 320 thousand houses out of which 209.000 are at urban zones and 111.000 at rural sectors.
Is the country’s third region that accepts a greater quantity of indigenous people which are primarily mapuches. 101.733 people inhabit this region that declares to be of some ethnic group.
