Cercado is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

in the northeastern parts of the

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

n department of

Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...

. Its capital is

. The hamlet of Paria, established in 1535, was the first Spanish settlement in Bolivia and previously had been a regional capital of the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...

. Paria is located in Soracachi municipality.

Location

Cercado province is one of sixteen provinces in the Oruro Department. It is located between 17° 22' and 18° 35'

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and between 66° 21' and 67° 20'

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. It borders

Tomas Barrón Province Tomás Barrón is a province in the northern parts of the Bolivian department of Oruro. Location Tomás Barrón province is one of the sixteen provinces in the Oruro Department. It is located between 17° 31' and 17° 44' South and between 67° ...

and La Paz Department in the northwest, Nor Carangas Province and Saucarí Province in the west, Poopó Province and Pantaléon Dalence Province in the southeast, and

Cochabamba Department Cochabamba ( ay, Quchapampa Jach'a Suyu, es, Departamento de Cochabamba , qu, Quchapampa Suyu), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' meaning "plain", is one of the nine departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the ...

in the east and north. The province extends over 135 km from North to South, and 105 km from east to west.

Geography

Some of the highest mountains of the province are listed below:

Population

The main language of the province is

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

, spoken by 96.7%, 43.3% of the population speak

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

and 25.5% speak Aymara. The population increased from 213,755 inhabitants (1992

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

) to 241,230 (2001 census), an increase of 12.9%. - 39.4% of the population is younger than 15 years old. 18.6% of the population have no access to

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

, 67.5% have no

sanitary facilities Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

. 16.3% of the population are employed in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

, 1.8% in mining, 11.9% in industry, 70.0% in general services (2001). 83.0% of the population are

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, 13.5% are

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

(1992).

Division

The province comprises four

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

which are further subdivided into cantons.

References

{{Oruro Department Provinces of Oruro Department

Location

Geography

Population

Division

See also

References