Corrientes
Corrientes, the land of chamamé. Its Iberá wetlands are a world of water and life, where the caiman, the capybara and the marsh deer live together in silence, and the jaguar has roared again. A Guaraní land, of the Virgin of Itatí and the Gauchito Gil, of carnival and faith. José de San Martín was born in Yapeyú. The accordion plays at every celebration and tereré passes from hand to hand. Corrientes is not listened to: it is danced. Corrientes is a soul that cries out its sapukay.
- Capital
- Corrientes
- Region
- Northeast
- Area
- 88,199 km²
- Population · 2022 Census
- 1,212,696 inhabitants · 13.7 hab/km²
- Women · Men
- 51.4 % · 48.6 %
- Median age
- 30 years
- By age
- 0 to 14 years: 24.1 % · 15 to 64 years: 65.8 % · 65 years and over: 10.1 %
- Climate
- Humid subtropical, with no dry season.
- Demonym
- correntino/a
- Founding of the capital
- 3 April 1588
Sources: INDEC, 2022 National Census (final results) · INDEC / IGN (area).
Natural wealth
The territory that defines it
Corrientes is a land of water. It is embraced by the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, which separate it from Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay, and at its heart beats the Iberá, one of the great wetlands of South America: marshes, lagoons, floating islands and grasslands where the marsh deer, the caiman, the capybara and hundreds of bird species live. To the north, the binational Yacyretá dam, facing Ituzaingó; to the south, the rolling hills and palm groves of Mesopotamia.
- Parque Nacional Mburucuyá (2002)
- Parque Nacional Iberá (2018)
Source: Argentine National Parks Administration (SIB-APN).
- Lagunas y Esteros del Iberá (2002) · 24,550 ha
Source: Argentine Undersecretariat of Environment, Ramsar Sites Network. Official year of designation and area.
In 1983 the province created the Iberá Nature Reserve, of 1.3 million hectares. In 2018 Iberá National Park was added, and together with the Provincial Park they form the Great Iberá Park, of more than 700,000 hectares: one of the largest protected territories in the country.
Private and public sectors · the Fundación Rewilding Argentina, together with the Government of Corrientes and the National Parks Administration, runs a program to reintroduce species that had become extinct in the province: the giant anteater, the pampas deer, the red-and-green macaw and the jaguar, extinct in the province for more than 70 years and released again since 2021. Between 2021 and 2023 a population of at least 17 free-living jaguars was established.
Sources: Argentine National Parks Administration · Government of Corrientes · Fundación Rewilding Argentina.
Human wealth
The living figures
Corrientes sings in chamamé, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2020, which every summer gathers thousands at the National Chamamé Festival. Its carnival, of comparsas, feathers and sequins, is one of its great symbols, and the popular devotion to the Gauchito Gil draws crowds to Mercedes every 8 January. Guaraní lives on in speech and at the table: chipá, mbeyú, sopa paraguaya, mbaipy and river fish such as dorado and surubí.
- Before the conquest · Guaraní peoples inhabit the shores and islands; their language is still alive in the speech of Corrientes
- 1588 · Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón founds San Juan de Vera de las Siete Corrientes
- 17th and 18th centuries · the Jesuit reductions of Yapeyú, La Cruz and Santo Tomé organize Guaraní life on the banks of the Uruguay
- 1778 · José de San Martín, Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, is born in Yapeyú
- 2004 · the province declares Guaraní an alternative official language
Sources: Government of the Province of Corrientes · Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano.
- Tránsito Cocomarola · music · born in San Cosme (1918-1974), one of the fathers of chamamé
- Teresa Parodi · music · singer-songwriter born in Corrientes
- Antonio Tarragó Ros · music · accordionist born in Curuzú Cuatiá
Sources: careers published in national and provincial press.
15,808 people identify as Indigenous or as descendants of Indigenous or native peoples: 1.3 % of the province's population. They belong to 41 different peoples, and 6,216 (39.3 %) speak or understand the language of their people. The five largest peoples are:
- Guaraní · 8,259
- Qom/Toba · 557
- Charrúa · 158
- Mapuche · 135
- Wichi · 107
Source: INDEC, 2022 National Population, Household and Housing Census, final results. Population in private dwellings.
Productive wealth
What it produces and exports
The economy of Corrientes combines rice, of which it is the country's leading producer, with one of the largest cattle herds in Argentina, pine and eucalyptus plantations, the citrus of Bella Vista and Monte Caseros, and the yerba mate and tea of the provincial northeast. Nature tourism in the Iberá is its great bet. The European Union is today its main export destination.
USD 336 million, 31.6 % more than in 2024: 0.4 % of the national total and 29.6 % of the Northeast.
- Primary products · USD 179 M
- Manufactures of agricultural origin · USD 114 M
- Manufactures of industrial origin · USD 43 M
Main destinations: European Union (USD 78 M, 23.2 %), United States (USD 65 M), Brazil (USD 30 M) and Chile (USD 26 M). Main products: cereals (USD 146 M), chemicals and related products (USD 34 M), fresh fruit (USD 22 M) and coffee, tea, yerba mate and spices (USD 15 M).
Source: INDEC, Provincial origin of exports. Goods. Year 2025 (provisional data) and annex tables.
The country's leading rice-growing province: in the 2025/26 season it contributed 48.5 % of national production. In 2023/24 it accounted for 46.8 % of the declared sown area.
Sources: National Rice Survey (INTA Corrientes, Asociación Correntina de Plantadores de Arroz and grain exchanges) · Instituto Nacional de Semillas (INASE).
4,518,834 head as of 31 December 2024: 8.8 % of the national cattle stock, the country's third cattle province after Buenos Aires and Santa Fe.
Source: SENASA, stock as of 31/12/2024, in Secretariat of Agriculture, Provincial cattle profile 2024.
The northeast of Corrientes is part of the area of the Yerba Mate Argentina Geographical Indication and in 2025 contributed 16.8 % of the green leaf processed in the country. It also produces 5 % of the country's tea.
Sources: National Yerba Mate Institute, processed by CEPA · INTI.
CONICET has four research units in the province, among them the Northeast Botanical Institute (IBONE), together with the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste.
Source: CONICET, 2025 Management Report.
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