Central Department

**Central** () is a department in Paraguay. The capital is the city of Areguá. Its ISO 3166-2 code  is **PY-11**.

The department has 2,297,739 inhabitants. That is more than any other department of Paraguay. The department is also the smallest of all the departments.

## History

The Central Department, known as “Comarca Asuncena”, was the most populated country region in old times.

The towns of this department had different origin. Domingo Martínez de Irala started the towns of Itá, Ypané and Areguá in 1538 and 1539. Villeta was founded by the governor Juan Gregorio Bazán de Pedraza in 1714. Other towns were founded around chapels.

The towns of Nueva Italia, Colonia Thompson and Villa Elisa were already established as agricultural settlements in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. These were mainly settled by immigrants.

## Geography

The Central department is in the central western part of the _Oriental_ region. It is on the southern border of the _Western_ region. It surrounds the capital, Asunción.

The department has an area of . That is  of the area of Paraguay. Its estimated population in 2013 was 2,297,739. That gave a population density of  inhabitants per square kilometre.

The Central department is relatively flat. It has only small hills. It has several rivers, as the Paraguay river, and streams flow through it. The Ypacaraí and Ypoá lakes are on the borders of the department.

### Limits

- To the north: Presidente Hayes and Cordillera departments.
- To the east: Paraguarí department.
- To the south: Ñeembucú department.
- To the west: Argentina and the _Distrito Capital_

## Districts

The department is divided in 19 districts:
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|class="unsortable"|No.|Districts|Area <small>(km²)</small>|Population <small>(2015)</small>|Density|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Areguá|||||
|2|Capiatá|||||
|3|Fernando de la Mora|||||
|4|Guarambaré|||||
|5|Itá|||||
|6|Itauguá|||||
|7|Julián Augusto Saldívar|||||
|8|Lambaré|||||
|9|Limpio|||||
|10|Luque|||||
|11|Mariano Roque Alonso|||||
|12|Ñemby|||||
|13|Nueva Italia|||||
|14|San Antonio|||||
|15|San Lorenzo|||||
|16|Villa Elisa|||||
|17|Villeta|||||
|18|Ypacaraí|||||
|19|Ypané|||||

## Economy

Industries include the processing of food, furniture, clothing, pharmaceutical production, metallurgic, plastic and ceramics. The city of Villeta has a large number of industries. Central is the second biggest economy of Paraguay.

### Tourism

The Central Department has many attractions for tourism. Among the most famous natural resources at an international level, is the Lago Ypacaraí. This lake is a very important natural attraction and the town of Areguá. The capital of the department is located on the banks of this lake

## Related pages

- Departments of Paraguay
- ISO 3166-2:PY

## Other websites

- Statoids - Departments of Paraguay

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Central
- **other name**: Departamento Central
- **native name lang**: es
- **type**: Departments of Paraguay, Department
- **image skyline**: Areguá Vista aérea.JPG
- **image alt**: Aerial view of Areguá
- **image caption**: Aerial view of Areguá
- **image flag**: Flag of Central Department, Paraguay.svg
- **flag alt**: Flag
- **image shield**: Escudo del departamento central, paraguay.JPG
- **shield size**: 70px
- **shield alt**: Coat of arms
- **image map**: Central in Paraguay.svg
- **map alt**: Central department in Paraguay
- **map caption**: Location of Central, in red, in Paraguay
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision type1**: Region
- **subdivision name1**: _Oriental_
- **established title**: Department
- **established date**: 1906
- **established title1**: Renamed
- **established date1**: 1945
- **seat type**: Capital city, Capital
- **seat**: Areguá
- **parts style**: para
- **parts type**: Districts
- **p1**: 19 (#Districts, See list)
- **unit pref**: Metric
- **area total km2**: 2465
- **population total**: 2297739
- **population as of**: 2013
- **population density km2**: auto
- **timezone1**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset1**: -04
- **timezone1 dst**: ADT
- **utc offset1 dst**: -03
- **iso code**: ISO 3166-2:PY, PY-11