Districts
For a new district to be legally established, a 1982 law requires a minimum number of residents to live in the area: 3,500 if it is located in the rainforest, 4,000 in the Andes highlands and 10,000 in the coastal area.
In the dry Andean area, many districts have fewer than 3,500 inhabitants due to low population density. In some cases, their populations have decreased in comparison to the days when they were founded. Districts that are located at very high altitudes tend to be scarcely populated. These districts usually are large in area, but they have little available level land for use. Many basic government services do not reach all residents of these districts due to their difficult geography. Many such districts lack financial means to govern their whole jurisdictions and they often have high emigration rates.
A similar pattern can be observed in many districts located in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Once important settlements created during the era of colonization, they now do not offer much space for agriculture. Deeper into the jungle, the districts of the selva alta (lower jungle) have higher populations living in geographically large districts. Districts located outside the former colonized area have very low populations, which are entirely composed of Native Amazonian tribes.
All over the country, many districts have higher populations than the minimum required by law. This is true of the colonized areas of the rainforest and the northern Andes, as well as in the southern Andes from Huancayo to the shores of Lake Titicaca, which is the historical heartland of the Peruvian highlands. These districts are old centers of civilization; they tend to be smaller in area with high population densities since pre-Hispanic times.
Districts in the Chala (coastal area) tend to be mid-sized, except in low-density areas such as the Sechura desert and part of the Southern coast. All have gained large populations due to emigration from other regions of the country, which has turned the Peruvian coast into the country's main economic powerhouse.
Districts with a population of more than 10 000 inhabitants should ideally be subdivided, particularly if they are also large in area, as is the case in part of the Amazon rainforest. Settlement can happen quickly and boundaries of districts are often not modified, except in large urban areas. This is less of a problem in the coast where communication is easier. However, reaching to large populations remain a problem in this area.
Read more about this topic: Administrative Divisions Of Peru
Famous quotes containing the word districts:
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)