Province of Soria

Soria is a province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area.OverviewIt is bordered by the provinces of La Rioja, Zaragoza, Guadalajara, Segovia, and Burgos. Soria is the least populous of all of Spain's provinces, with a density of around 9 inhabitants/km²—one of the lowest in the European Union. The average population density of provinces in Spain and European Union are 83.6 and 116 inhabitants per square km respectively.Of the province's population of 91,487 (2002), nearly 40% live in the capital, Soria. 26.7% of its population was above 65 years of age while the nation's average is 16.9%. There are 183 municipalities in Soria, of which nearly half are hamlets of under 100 people and of which only 12 have more than 1000 people. The cathedral town of the province is El Burgo de Osma.EconomyThe province's most important agricultural products are cereals. In the 1950s there were a total of 70,000 hectares cultivated land, but excessive fragmentation and lack of mechanization resulted in a very low productivity. In 1960, while the agricultural sector accounted for 69% of workers in the province, 70% of farms were used exclusively for animal rearing. There are currently about 100,000 hectares of land in the province dedicated to the cultivation of wheat and other 100,000 hectares for barley cultivation.