Puerto de Mejillones Province

Puerto de Mejillones is a province in the western parts of the Bolivian department of Oruro.

Location

"Puerto de Mejillones" province is one of the sixteen provinces in the Oruro Department. It is located between 18° 53' and 19° 16' South and between 68° 10' und 68° 26' West.

The province is surrounded by Atahuallpa Province in the North, West and East, and it borders the Republic of Chile in the Southwest.

The province extends over 45 km from North to South, and 35 km from East to West.

Population

Main idiom of the province is Spanish, spoken by 97.0 %, while 66.6 % of the population speak Aymara and 8.6 % Quechua (1992).

The population increased from 751 inhabitants (1992 census) to 1,130 (2001 census), an increase of 50 %. - 42.6 % of the population are younger than 15 years old (1992).

74 % of the population have no access to electricity, 73 % have no sanitary facilities (1992).

83.8 % of the population are employed in agriculture, 1.0 % in industry, 15.2 % in general services (2001).

74 % of the population are Catholics, 18 % are Protestants (1992).

Division

The province comprises three municipio:
*Carangas
*La Rivera
*Todos Santos

External links

* [http://www.aguabolivia.org/situacionaguaX/Riego/mapas/oruro/t_mejillones.htm General map of province]
* [http://www.aguabolivia.org/situacionaguaX/Riego/mapas/oruro/mejillones.htm Detailed map of province towns and rivers]
* [http://www.ine.gov.bo/cgi-bin/PIWDGEOxx.EXE Population data (Spanish)]