Morales (Bolivar)

The settlement, from which the city later grew, was founded in 1610 by Pedro Vicente de Morales. The municipality of Morales was separated into a separate administrative unit in 1845 .

The city is located in the southeastern part of the department, on the right bank of the Morales arm of the Magdalena River , west of Lake Cienaga-Bitumen, approximately 290 kilometers southeast of the city of Cartagena , the administrative center of the department. The absolute height is 22 meters above sea ​​level ^[1] .
The municipality of Morales borders in the northeast with the territory of the municipality of Rio Viejo , in the northwest and west with the municipality of Arenal , in the southwest with the municipality of Montecristo , in the south with the municipalities of Santa Rosa del Sur and Simiti , in in the southeast - with the territory of the department of Santander , in the east - with the territory of the department of Cesar . The area of ​​the municipality is 1765 km² ^[2] .

According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia, the total population of the city and municipality in 2015 was 21 182 people ^[3] . The dynamics of the population of the municipality by years:

According to the 2005 census, men accounted for 53.2% of the population of Morales, women - respectively, 46.8%. Racially, whites and mestizos accounted for 90.2% of the city’s population; blacks , mulattoes and Raisals - 9.8% ^[4] . The literacy rate of the entire population was 80%.

The basis of the Morales economy is crop production (the main crops are cassava , beans , sorghum , bananas , corn ), cattle breeding , mining and fishing .
57.1% of the total number of urban and municipal enterprises are trade enterprises, 33.9% are service enterprises, 7.9% are industrial enterprises, 1.1% are enterprises of other sectors of the economy ^[4] .