Konin County embraces territory situated in the middle part of Poland, at the eastern borders of Wielkopolska Voivodeship. It takes up the area of 1.578,7 km2. This makes the county to be the fourth in the Voivodship and belong to group of the largest counties in Poland.
Territory of county belongs to the strip of lowlands within the limits of Wielkopolska Lowland.
In the central part of county there stretches the wide Warta valley. To the north and to the south from it there rise the diverse uplands, additionally varied with 23 glacial lakes in the north:
There predominate temperate climate with the mild winters and low yearly level of atmospheric precipitation.
Territory of the county is poor in useful natural recourses. The most profitable recourse is a brown coal, which deposits are located to the north from Konin City.
Forests occupy about 25 thousand ha, it means 16% of the whole area. On the territory of county there are 59 natural monuments. Among the natural-scenery landscape there are protected areas: Warta river Valley, forest complex to the south-east from Konin City, Bieniszew Primeval Forest as well as Gopło Lake and Skulskie Lakes surroundings.
Konin County includes 14 communes:
They are divided into 297 village councils. The local community inhabits 488 rural and 5 urban places.
Konin County population amounts (according to data from 30.06.2009) 125.759 residents. Ślesin commune has the most number of inhabitants (13 711), while the smallest in this regard is Grodziec county. The biggest town according to its residents number is Golina (4 401).
Population of the rural territories makes 85,9% of the whole county population. In 1st part of 2009 there was recorded positive natural population growth - 2,90 for 1000 residents. According to its number of the inhabitants Konin county is on the 5th position among 31 counties of Wielkopolska Voivodeship.
Number of employed in the year of 2008 was assessed as 30,8 thousand, where 15,8 thousand are involved in farming and forestry, 6,7 thousand - in industry and building and 8,3 thousand - market servicing.
At the end of 2008, within the whole number of population the persons of before-productive age made 23,4% (29,3 thousand), and productive age - 62,7% (78,7 thousand). In 3rd quarter of 2009 there was registered 6,37 thousand of unemployed, where 34,2% were the persons between 24 -31 years old. An unemployment rate was of 14,3%. Within the whole number of unemployed 8,1% were the persons with high education, 32,5% - graduates of general secondary schools, 31,4% graduates of basic vocational schools and 28% - graduates of primary and secondary schools.
Local labor market in regard of demand (number of job places) forms its two sectors: agriculture and fuel-energy complex along with their economic entities.
In whole, at the end of 2009, on the territory of county within the REGON system there were registered 7 540 economic entities and were functioning (data from September 2009) 12.700 farms. The whole number of 7 540 economic entities included:
In half of 2009 the rate of registered economic entities for 1000 residents was 62,2. At the same time this rate in neighboring counties was as follows:
Shares of particular branches in the economic structures of communes are riding on the similar level with that county-wide. There is noticeable domination of trade and repair service sector. In other sectors, there appear greater differences, but deviations from the average rate are of some percents at maximum (for example: in Ślesin commune it concerns hotel and catering industry, transport and warehousing, and in Golina and Sompolno communes - building industry).
As was mentioned above, within the agriculture sector, according to data on September 2009, there functioned in whole 12.700 farms , with whole area of 114,4 thousand ha.
In regard of the average area of arable lands due to 1 farm in general, Konin County with its 9 ha was located on one of last place (among 31 counties).
Konin county, like other units of Konin sub-region (territory is almost the same of former Konin Voivodeship), despite of negative impact of fuel-energy complex, is marked by relatively large area of so-called high-value natural territories and areas including elements of ecological structures.
Such features of Konin county as: geographic location, clear natural environment, rout of lakes along with forests complexes, historic objects and protected areas make this region to be attractive for the development of tourist service.
Exceptional virtues of Konin county make the basis for establishing of such forms of tourism as:
Central location of Konin county offers favorable conditions in regard of the communication availability. This is a very important feature for tourist sector. Easy access is conductive to forming of the tourism structures within this territory and brings a lot of advantages. Beside the routs and means of transport, the communication base of Konin county also includes marked out hike, bicycle, kayak trails.
Tourist accommodation base of Konin county is mainly consists of hotels, conference and holiday centers, summer-resort houses, chalets, camping sites, wayside inns, private lodgings and agri-tourist farms.
On the territory of Konin county, all the recreation objects and hotels concentrate their attention on the development of sport-recreation equipment base. In lower degree, there expanded the base of paratourist services and those entertainment concerned.
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