Tres Cantos
Encyclopedia
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
located in the autonomous community
Autonomous communities of Spain
An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...
of Madrid, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, some 22 km north of the capital city, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. As a "satellite city" of Madrid which was conceived by urban planners
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
as recently as the 1970s, it is the youngest incorporated municipality in Spain, with a population (2004 National Statistics figures) of approximately 39,000. Tres Cantos was the Spanish bid host city for the 2018 Ryder Cup
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...
. However, residents showed poor popular support (the event was finally awarded to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines is a new town in the French département of Yvelines. It is one of the original five villes nouvelles of Paris and was named after the Saint Quentin Pond, which was chosen to become the town's centre. The town was built from a greenfield site starting in the 1960s. In...
).
History
Tres Cantos is a 'new community' or planned township, which was first commissioned by the dictatorship of Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in 1971 to be established on rural land ceded by the city of Colmenar Viejo
Colmenar Viejo
Colmenar Viejo is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants, located in the Community of Madrid, Spain, 30 kilometers north of Madrid on the M-607 motorway.-Main sights:The most important tourist attractions places in Colmenar Viejo are:...
. Residential occupation began from 1982, and in 1991 it was incorporated as a separate municipality, the newest in all of Spain. Infrastructure development has continued apace, with a current (2005) 5-year development plan by local government authorities allowing for expansion of up to 60,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Tres Cantos was built on former rural lands, about halfway from the northern outskirts of suburban Madrid to the GuadarramaGuadarrama
Guadarrama is a town in the Community of Madrid in Spain.Pop: 13032 , approx. 60000 .Co-ordinates . not true...
mountain range, which are frequently snow-capped in winter. It lies in a slight valley formed with two eastwards-flowing creeks, bounded to the south by a higher plateau leading to Madrid, and to the west and north by more hilly terrain, which separates the area from the watershed of the Manzanares River. General elevation of the township is around 680 m, with a highest elevation within the municipality's borders of 730 m. The terrain rises towards the foothills of the Guadarrama range to the north and northwest, reaching elevations
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
in excess of 800 m across the border in Colmenar Viejo. Within the urban area the terrain is gently undulating. First, it was all field!
Demographics
In 2004 the residential population of Tres Cantos was 38,882 according to National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, or INE) figures; however later estimates put the figure at around 45,000. Population growth has been in decline since the peak of the initial influx of residents in the early 1990s, however future plans for expansion are designed to cater for an eventual population of around 60,000.A striking feature of Tres Cantos' demographic profile
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
is the large proportion of young professionals (aged 45 and under) with children, compared to Madrid and the national average. This population structure reflects the nucleus of those who left the crowded confines of Madrid to settle in the new community of Tres Cantos in the 1980s and 1990s, resulting in a predominance of young, double-income and home-owning families of 2 to 3 children. Some 40% of the town's population are under 20 (almost double the national average), and less than 6% are over the age of 65 (considerably less than half the national average). The birth rate is also double the national average.
Some 10% of the population are foreign-born (extranjeros), with those from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries representing over half of these, and those from other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries a further 33%. Again, many of the immigrant population are professionals employed by multinational companies in fields such as technology, who have settled in Spain after first arriving on work assignment, many of whom are married to Spanish nationals.
Educational accreditation among Tres Cantos inhabitants is also above the national average, with some 60% of prime income earners holding a tertiary qualification or higher. Average income levels reflect these education levels and professional employment opportunities, with over 55% having salaries in the upper-middle or higher income range. Many households have dual-incomes. Approximately 15% of households are classified as lower-middle and low-income households.
An overwhelming majority of the employed work in the services sector, either in Madrid or in Tres Cantos itself. A majority of working residents regularly commute to Madrid for work, with only about a quarter of the workforce having employment in Tres Cantos itself. Those who remain behind are joined by a daily influx of approximately 20,000 who commute from Madrid and its environs to Tres Cantos for work. Light and medium industries account for some 20% of employment in Tres Cantos, the construction sector providing a further 7.4%; a bare handful (0.2%) are employed in agriculture.
Economy and Industry
Tres Cantos' main economic activity is derived from the existence of various high-tech factories and headquarters in designated zones,including from the pharmaceutical, aerospace and computing industries.Approximately 20,000 employees from outside of Tres Cantos (predominanty Madrid) commute daily to work in its industrial zones its "Technological Park," home of cutting-edge companies in the aerospace industry. Other multinational corporations with offices and/or production in Tres Cantos are: Lucent Technologies, BP Solar, BDF Nivea, Nokia Siemens Networks, Samsonite, Siemens, Dannon, GMV, IFS. Most recently, the largest cable provider in Spain, SOGECABLE, relocated here. The headquarters of both the Real Automóvil Club de España
RACE (automobile association)
The Real Automóvil Club de España , is the Spanish equivialent of the American Automobile Association in the United States of America or the Automobile Association in the United Kingdom....
and the Spanish Metrology Centre are located in Tres Cantos.
Sister cities
Tres Cantos is a sister city to the planned cities of Columbia, MarylandColumbia, Maryland
Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Cergy-Pontoise
Cergy-Pontoise
Cergy-Pontoise is a new town in France, in the Val d'Oise département, northwest of Paris on the Oise River. It owes its name to two of the communes that it covers, Cergy and Pontoise....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Nejapa
Nejapa
Nejapa is a municipality in the San Salvador department of El Salvador. It is the city after Apopa and before Quezaltepeque. People from Nejapa Are known as Nejapenses. One of the major traditions of Nejapa is "Las Bolas De Fuego" . It is celebrated Every 31st of August. Las Bolas de Fuego has two...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
Sports Clubs
- U.D Tres Cantos Islas
- Galáctico Pegaso
- Tres Cantos C.D.F.
- Tien 21 Uicesa Tres Cantos (futsal club)
- CEA TEAM C.F.
- Club de Rugby Tres Cantos
