Baix Camp


Baix Camp is a comarca of Catalonia. It is one of the three comarques into which Camp de Tarragona was divided in the comarcal division of 1936.
Baix Camp is located on the coast, between Tarragonès to the northeast and Baix Ebre to the south. It also borders the comarques of Priorat, Ribera d'Ebre, Conca de Barberà, Alt Camp, and Tarragonès.

Population

Almost 150,000 people inhabit Baix Camp. The population has risen gently since the middle of the twentieth century, with population growth averaging 1.5% annually during the last three decades. Growth is not evenly distributed, however, but is strongly focused on Reus, the industrial and commercial centre of the region. Around two third of the inhabitants of Baix Camp live in Reus, which from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries was the second most populous city in Catalonia, after Barcelona. Taking Catalonia as a whole, the place of Reus in the population rankings has now slipped to tenth. Within Baix Camp, the only other municipality with more than 10,000 inhabitants is Cambrils.

Economy

In the agricultural sector almonds and hazelnuts are a major crops, together representing 30% of primary sector production. Viticulture has never regained the level of dominance that it enjoyed before the European Phylloxera epidemic that peaked in the 1870s. High dependency on almonds and hazelnuts nevertheless leaves the entire regional economy vulnerable to declining world market prices that have accompanied increased globalization of the agricultural sector. Some price protection is afforded to growers by protected designation for "Hazelnuts from Reus" which actually covers not just production from Reus but also that from neighboring Alt Camp, Tarragonès, Priorat, Conca de Barberà and Terra Alta.

Municipalities

After the capital Reus, the major cities are Cambrils and Mont-roig del Camp; other significant towns are Riudoms and Selva del Camp.
Smaller municipalities: