ENTRE DOURO E VOUGA - Geography and history
This sub-region, with roughly 860 square kilometres is located between the Douro and the Vouga is a small area at the southern limit of the Norte region of Portugal and is separated from the sea by only a few kilometres. It lies at the edges of two important areas of influence and happens to draw benefit from both - from Porto to the north and from Aveiro to the south. Entre Douro e Vouga has borders to the north with the sub-regions of Grande Porto and Tâmega and to the south, east and west with the Centra region of Portugal.
The western half of the sub-region is predominantly urban or semi-urban; its eastern half, consisting of uplands including the Freita range and part of the Arada range, is clearly rural. Entre Douro e Vouga is the sub-region of the Norte with the smallest utilised agricultural area in percentage terms (only 12% in 1995); to compensate, it has the largest percentage of woodland (52%).
The Rivers Douro and Vouga, which give the area its name, are both outside its limits. The sub-region has an abundant network of watercourses, but these tend to be relatively small, the largest being the Rivers Paiva, Arda and Caima.
Heavy industrialisation and a high activity rate
Entre Douro e Vouga is the second most industrialised sub-region in the Norte, after Ave. Its specialisation differs from that of the rest of the Norte region.
The three main industries are base metals and metal products and the wood and cork and above all leather and footwear branches, both of which are more highly concentrated in Entre Douro e Vouga than anywhere else in the Norte. In 1991 the sub-region accounted for some 39% of all jobs in the wood and cork products branch in the Norte of Portugal and, in 1995, for some 46% of ail employees of wood and cork companies in the Norte region. Entre Douro e Vouga accounted for 45% of jobs in leather and footwear in the Norte region in 1991 and for 41% of all employees in the branch in 1995.The strong export drive of these two industries sustains an internationalised economy in Entre Douro e Vouga and is the source of much of the internationalisation of the Norte region as a whole.
Entre Douro e Vouga also records the highest activity rates in the Norte of Portugal and unemployment rate close to national average (7.2% in 2001) (close behind Cávado and with a virtually identical value). The number of students in the population aged 15 to 24 in 1991 was low, however (at 23.8%, the third lowest value in Portugal, after Tâmega and Ave), indicating that the young people of the sub-region tend to enter the labour market at an early age.
The economic structure of Entre Douro e Vouga also shows a lack of development of business services to cater for the lively industrial activity in the area. The proximity of the metropolitan districts of Aveiro and above all Porto, where there is a good supply of this type of services, has alleviated this problem, however. In recent years the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira has seen the development of a substantial business support structure with, inter alia, an exhibition hall and conference centre. In terms of share in the Gross Value Added, primary sector is very small (1% in 2000), whereas the secondary sector is largely predominant (56% in the region against 29% for the national average). The share of the tertiary sector is thus largely under the total Portugal share (respectively 43% and 68%)
Growing population and foreign capital in the biggest companies
Between 1995 and 2001, Entre Douro e Vouga has recorded an important population growth (+4.5%), which is significantly higher than the national average (+2.3%). The number of residents in Entre Douro e Vouga increased by 11 700 (+6.5%) between 1995 and 2001 - a result of natural population growth (the balance between live births and deaths), despite a drop in the birth rate from 17 per thousand in the early 1980s to roughly 12.1 per thousand in 2000. The mortality rate was 7.7 per thousand in 2000. Migration rates remained very slightly negative throughout the 1980s. The ageing of the population of the region is also marked in the Norte region. The number of residents aged over 65 per 100 aged under 15 increased from 30 to 58 between 1981 and 1995.
Entre Douro e Vouga's economic structure is relatively atypical compared to the rest of the country. It is dominated by the secondary sector, which in 1999 had a share of 62% in employment, twice as much as the one observed at national level and the second highest of all regions. Manufacturing accounted for 58% of jobs in the sub-region, with leather and footwear accounting for 26%, wood and cork products 11% and base metals and metal products 7%. Only 8% of jobs were in construction - the lowest figure in the Norte region. The tertiary sector provided only 33% of employment in Entre Douro e Vouga - the second lower share, while the national average was 58% -, with the distributive trades, hotels and restaurants providing 13%, services of a social nature (public administration, health, education and personal services) 10% and transport, communications, financial services, real estate and other business services only 4%. Lastly, the primary sector accounted for 5% of jobs in the sub-region, two percentage points over the global figure for Portugal. The primary sector takes a bigger share in the less densely-populated municipalities of the east (a third of all jobs in Arouca and 21% in Vale de Cambra) and manufacturing a smaller share (26% in Arouca and 43% in Vale de Cambra). Services of a predominantly social nature and the primary sector together provide 26% of employment, which implies a substantial growth in this type of service.
The largest urban centre in Entre Douro e Vouga is the city of São João da Madeira, whose attraction as a workplace is demonstrated by the fact that its workforce is almost twice the size of its resident population.
Eight of the 100 biggest employers in the Norte region are located in Entre Douro e Vouga, and four of these employ more than 1 000 persons. Half of these companies, including the three largest employers, have a majority of foreign shareholders.
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