Area: 99,633 KM2.

Population: 983,087 (2001).

Capital City: Resistencia

Main Cities: Resitencia, Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Villa Ángela, Barranqueras.

The province of Chaco, located in the Chaco region, is bounded by the province of Formosa on the north; the Republic of Paraguay and the province of Corrientes, on the east; the provinces of Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero, on the south; and by the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Salta, on the west.

Chaco occupies an area of 99,633 square kilometers (2.7% of the country total). The territory is a flat terrain of apparent evenness; the differences are marked by a climatic diversity, which impacts on the water availability feeding the hydraulic network, as well as on the diversification of soils and vegetation: thick forests in the west, an open landscape of parks and savannas in the central area, and a horizon of swamps and marshlands, surrounded by galleries of wild forests, in the east.

Political Organization and Demographic Structure:

This province, the capital of which is Resistencia, is divided into 24 departments, with separate political and administrative powers.

Annual average growth rate is 17‰, while density amounts to 8.4 inhabitants per square kilometer. Urban population represents 69%. (1991).

Economic Structure:

In 1994, the primary sector contributed 16% to the value added of the global supply of goods and services. The secondary sector generated 17%, while the remaining 67% of the global economic activity corresponds to the supply of financial, transport and communications, commerce, and government services.

The province of Chaco specializes in cotton dry farming, lumbering, and tropical cattle raising, and related activities, such as cotton ginning, and in lesser amount, weaving; sawmills; tannin extraction; cold-storage plants. The last decade shows agricultural diversification (sunflower and soya) and animal husbandry development.

Climate, topography, and drainage contribute towards defining great environmental units, which can be grouped into meridian-oriented zones: in the west, the semiarid Chaco; a central subhumid zone; to the east, the humid riverside Chaco; and lastly, the Paraguay-Paraná valley. Climate is hot, with an average temperature of 21°C/70°F, recording extreme variations of up to 45°C/113°F.

Tourism

Tourist attractiveness is chiefly based on the Chaco National Park, Colonia Benitez Educative Reserve,Presidencia Roque Saenz Peña, Villa Elisa, Isla Cerrito Campo del Cielo and the varied abundance of the provincial forests.