Argentina Population Distribution and Density
In Argentina the population is very irregularly distributed and every census has made the phenomenon clear; although certain regions are populating with some rapidity and therefore become similar to others, the differences are too significant for them to disappear in the immediate future, and perhaps they will never disappear, such and many are the causes on which they depend.
Here are two statistical frameworks that allow us to compare the population and its increase in the provinces, grouped according to the most common classification:
As can be seen, the relative increase is not uniform, indeed there are very large differences; for example between Catamarca and Santa Fe. The increase in some provinces is so tenuous that the absolute and relative increase in the territory of La Pampa, which in 1869 was still occupied by the Indians, was greater.
According to liuxers.com, the population density is very low, as it does not yet reach four residents per square kilometer. Compared to the European one and particularly to the Italian one, there is a difference in the larger ones; it will still be a long time before the figures get closer.
Regarding the distribution of density, it is easy to see that highly populated areas can be contrasted with other uninhabited or almost uninhabited areas; here are some examples: the province of Buenos Aires (without counting the federal capital which, due to its proximity, could be included) has 9 residents per square kilometer, and so is Santa Fe; Tucumán occupies the first place, as its density surpasses 15; on the other hand, other provinces are more uninhabited; for example, Catamarca does not get to have 2 and La Rioja has a little less than 1. These two are not yet the least populated regions; it is easy to find lower indexes: in Tierra del Fuego, each resident corresponds to more than 8 km; one resident for 15 sq. km. in Santa Cruz, and in the territory of Los Andes there are more than 35 sq km per resident.
But if this procedure is almost correct for some areas; for others, the index is theoretical and gives an idea that does not correspond to the truth; in effect, as we have seen for the whole republic, there are too many differences between one part of a province or another for one to speak of uniform distribution. There are many causes of this diversity, for or against: very high mountains, rocky soil, sandy soils, salinas, marshy regions, scarce rainfall, fertile land, ease of communication, lack of historical development, etc. In the province of Mendoza, the irrigated areas and cultivated with vineyards and orchards are densely inhabited and centralize almost the entire population, while the rest of the province, despite its immensity, is practically uninhabited. In the territory of the Río Negro, the influence of the river of the same name is noted, which centers a high percentage of residents, and something similar happens on the railway line from San Antonio to Nahuel Huapí. Among the arid mountains of the northwest it is immediately observed that the greatest density (and sometimes the only notable population) corresponds to the bottom of the irrigated valleys or to the mines. But where the Argentine population is more numerous, from an absolute and relative point of view (we are talking about extensive regions and not limited places) it is in the Pampean area, and this is also the region of greater uniformity in distribution; fact due to climatic, topographical, economic and social causes. Nonetheless, several differences can be established: the land destined for cattle breeding has a lower density than the others, because this type of economic exploitation requires little labor; denser is the population of agricultural lands; but even in these, if agriculture is extensive (as is almost always the case), the index remains very low. Instead, in the intensively cultivated lands and in the industrial and commercial areas, where urban life marks one of the main characteristics, we have a great density, as along the Plata and the right bank of the Paraná up to the Salado. Therefore, a map of the density for provinces and territories would not even be approximate; a more exact study made by Delachaux; but, since his writing dates back to 1905, it is now antiquated and has an exclusively historical value; do not forget the rapidity of changes that the population of Argentina undergoes.
