CAVADO - Geography and history
The Cávado sub-region is bounded to the north by Minho-Lima and to the west by the Atlantic; at its extreme north-east it has a short border with Spain. To the south and south-east it is bounded by the River Cávado, by Grande Porto and Ave. The city of Braga, with 141 256 inhabitants in 2000, is the largest conurbation in a sub-region with an area of over 1 240 sq. km. Only the extreme north-east remains predominantly rural, the rest of the area showing diffuse urban settlement.
The terrain is diverse, ranging from oceanic beaches to mountains in the far north-east, dominated by the Amarela and Geres ranges (maximum altitude 1 508 m and extending into the Alto Trás-os-Montes sub-region). Cávado includes part of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, important to nature conservation.
Environmental protection is also well in evidence on the coast, where the dunes are protected as an Área de Paisagem Protegida do Litoral de Esposende.
In 1995, 29% of the sub-region was forested and 31% farmland.
Strong demographic dynamism and a shortage of business services
The Cávado sub-region has a population which is not only one of the youngest in Portugal (on a par with other sub-regions of the North, such as Ave and Tâmega), but also one of the fastest-growing: it increased by 5% between 1995 and 2001 while the national average over the same period is 2%. There were 387 200 inhabitants in the Cavado in 2001.
Cávado is also relatively well-served by communal facilities and records some of the best values for certain social indicators of the sub-regions of the Norte. It has, for example, the second best hotel network in the North (14 establishments), surpassed only by Grande Porto. In the health field, Cávado has ten hospitals, eight of which are in the private sector. The average number of beds per thousand inhabitants (about six) is the highest in the Norte region.
In the cultural area, the proportion of the resident population of Cávado having attended public cultural events in 1995 was higher than in any other sub-region of the Norte. The 50 publications issued in Cávado also recorded the highest average annual print run per publication per 100 inhabitants for the region. Where education is concerned, the University of Minho in Braga is one of the largest in the country in terms of student numbers and the second largest in the Norte region. The dynamism of the city of Braga itself, one of the main urban centres of the Norte region, can be viewed as a development factor for the Cávado sub-region.
Cavado's economic structure shows a relatively large industrial base (secondary sector represented 42% of GVA in 2000 against 29% for Portugal as a whole) and an appreciable degree of diversification. There is, however, a distinct shortage of market services other than the distributive trades, hotels and restaurants - i.e. of services intended primarily for businesses. In 1996, only 5% of jobs in Cávado were in this branch - the lowest figure of the sub-regions of the Norte.
Economic structure following the dynamic demographic trend
The growth in Cavado's population has been accompanied by a dynamic economy, giving it the lowest unemployment rate in the Norte region (5.8% in 2001). Between 1995 and 2001, the region has one of the highest average annual growth rates of the population, with almost 1% per year.
The population expansion is due primarily to natural growth, evidenced in the difference between births and deaths. The birth rate was 13.7 per thousand in 2000, the second highest of the Norte sub-regions. The mortality rate is one of the lowest, at 7.3 per thousand in 2000. In recent years Cavado's population growth has been further supplemented by migration, which in the 1980s showed slightly negative figures. With such a dynamic demographic structure it is hardly surprising that Cávado has a fairly young population, even though some ageing of the population is evident. Cavado's ageing coefficient, which in 1981 was 27 inhabitants aged over 65 per 100 aged under 15, had risen by 1995 to 47 over 65 per 100 aged under 15.
The primary sector has a comparable share in the region and in the country as a whole, representing 3% of the Gross Value Added in 2000. The secondary sector is predominant in the economy, with a share of 42% in the GVA of the region (29% at national level), and especially manufacturing, which is crucial to Cavado's economic structure. The municipalities of Braga and Barcelos dominate business activity, accounting for over four-fifths of Cavado's businesses plus, of course, workers and turnover. Municipalities such as Terras de Bouro, Amares and Vila Verde, on the other hand, record little business activity, most employment being in the primary sector (according to 1991 data). Thus, the share of the tertiary sector, 56% is lower than the national average, established 12 percentage points higher.
In 1999, almost half of the employment concerned the secondary sector and manufacturing provided some two-fifths of all employment in Cávado, above all in textiles and clothing, which accounted for one in four jobs. The tertiary sector accounted for 43% of total employment, 17% of which was in services of a predominantly social nature (including public administration, education, health and personal services), 15% in the distributive trades, hotels and restaurants and 5% in the rest of the tertiary sector (chiefly business services). Lastly, construction provided 12% of jobs and the primary sector 11%. The share of the primary sector in employment was 10%, slightly less than the national average.
The data available for 1996 indicate a fall-off in the relative importance of manufacturing which, together with the extraction industry and the energy and water branch, now accounts for only 35% of jobs in Cávado. This trend will have been offset by an increase in the tertiary sector, particularly in the distributive trades, hotels, restaurants and services of a predominantly social nature. Cávado has six companies with over 500 employees, three of which are in the consumer electronics field, two are textile firms and one is a telecommunication enterprise. Blaupunkt Auto-Radio Portugal Ltd employs some 2 000 persons and is the leading company in the region in terms of number of workers.
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