Table of Contents
We explain what an economic region is, its characteristics, function and examples from around the world. In addition, other types of regions.
What is an economic region?
When we speak of an economic region, we refer to an area of the Earth’s surface in which a certain type of productive activity is carried out, for the most part.
It may also be an area of particular wealth and exploitation of certain natural resources within the territory of a country or encompassing the territory of various nations whose economies have achieved an important level of rapport.
It is a type of geographic region that focuses on economics to organize its limits, which can be of great interest for the study of human performance in an area of the world, which is key in turn for economic investment issues, diplomatic treaties, etc.
In the world there are numerous economic regions of global importance, almost all constituted by a commercial treaty or by other ties of economic cooperation. On the other hand, all the countries of the world can be subdivided, internally, into their constituent economic regions, if we pay attention to the way in which productive activity is organized spatially.
Examples of economic regions
Some known economic regions are:
- The Orinoco mining arch, located in the Venezuelan southeast, where a significant portion of the mining and oil exploitation in that country is carried out, at the hands of the large transnational companies.
- The “cotton belt”Located in the southeast of this country, it receives its name for the abundant planting of this fabric (cotton) that was carried out between the 18th and 20th centuries.
- The South American wet pampa, of around 600,000 km2 of total area, covering the territories of Uruguay, Río Grande do Sul (Brazil) and part of central Argentina (provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba and La Pampa), it is one of the best areas in the world for planting, especially of cereals.
- The Ruhr region of Germany, also called the “Ruhr mining basin”, is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the country, with 5 million inhabitants, in the heart of the state of Westphalia (North Rhine), and agglomerates eleven cities in a mainly industrial productive area .
Other types of regions
Apart from the economic one, the geographical regions can be organized according to varied criteria, depending on the specific element in which we decide to focus. We have, like this:
- Natural regions, when we choose to look at the natural conformation of the terrain: relief, hydrography, vegetation, climate, etc.
- Political regions, if we pay attention to the way in which human societies organize themselves ethnically, culturally or ideologically.
- Cultural regions, if we look exclusively at the similarity of local cultures (generally using for it religion or spoken language) and the territories occupied by their practitioners.
- Urban regions, those that generally comprise a large urban population (a large city) and those of lesser importance that accompany or depend on it.