page_title: Póvoa de Varzim
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Póvoa de Varzim / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: One of three Pelamis machines bursts through a wave at the Aguçadoura Wave Park off Portugal
context_page_description: Póvoa de Varzim is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, 30 km from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 inhabitants, with 42,396 living in the city proper. The city expanded, southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there are about 100,000 inhabitants in the urban area alone. It is the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in Portugal and the third largest in Northern Portugal.
  Permanent settlement in Póvoa de Varzim dates back to around four to six thousand years ago; around 900 BC, unrest in the region led to the establishment of Cividade de Terroso, a fortified city, which developed maritime trade routes with the civilizations of classical antiquity. Modern Póvoa de Varzim emerged after the conquest by the Roman Republic of the city by 138 BC; fishing and fish processing units soon developed, which became the foundations of the local economy.
context_section_description: The economy of Póvoa de Varzim is driven by tourism, manufacturing, construction, fishing, and agribusiness. In 2016, the unemployment rate, at 10.16%, was high and compares with the national average at 10.2%. However, it is one of the lowest rates in Greater Porto, which peaks in Vila Nova de Gaia (16.34%) and Porto proper (17.26%) Póvoa de Varzim's purchasing power represented 0.6% of the total national purchasing power in 2017, up from 0.5% in 1993. However, per capita values were just 95.5% of the national average in 2017, up from 94.9% in 2015.
  During the 2001 census, 1770 companies were headquartered in Póvoa de Varzim, of which 2.82% were of the primary sector, 33.73% of the secondary and 63.45% of the tertiary. Despite its weight in Greater Porto international trade is weak, in 2004 it represented 1.1% of departures and 0.9% of arrivals, its coverage rate of arrivals against departures suppressed the 100% mark.
  Póvoa de Varzim's real estate development ranked as the fifth most active out of seventeen municipalities of Metropolitan Porto in 2015, when considering new homes. Reconstruction was mostly stagnant, and Póvoa de Varzim was eighth in overall activity.
caption: Some renewable energy research projects were tested in Póvoa de Varzim's coastline, including the  Aguçadoura Wave Park (pictured) and the windfloat project.
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