Poverty. Chaco Province continues to suffer from the worst social indicators in the country with 49.3% of its population living below the poverty line by income and with 17.5% of children between the ages of two and five in a state of malnutrition in 2009.

Tourists visit Santiago del Estero (the oldest city in Argentina) and its historical buildings and museums, Termas de Río Hondo and the Río Hondo hot springs with its 200 hotels, and the Frontal dam where water sports are practiced.

Although "Argentina" was already in common usage by the 18th century, the country was formally named "Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata" by the Spanish Empire, and "United Provinces of the Río de la Plata" after independence.

Epecuén was a tourist town on the edge of Lake Epecuén. In the 1970s it had a population of 5000, but in 1985, a dam gave way, and water slowly submerged the whole town. By 1993 the town was under more than 10 m of salty water. Then in 2009, the water began receding, revealing a town in ruins.