The main activities are dairy farming, market gardening (flower farming and organic vegetable farming), poultry and beekeeping, organized in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Demographics Villa San Antonio del Camino started with 101 inhabitants grouped into twelve families, most of them Spaniard and Criollo people. At the dawn of 19th century more than fifty black African people lived in Merlo as slaves of the mercedarian friars. After his death Francisco de Merlo left five African slaves to the hospice. Many Irish and Basque immigrants settled in Merlo around the mid 19th century, the first ones after left Ireland because of the Great Irish Famine and British oppression, and the second ones fleeing from Spain's Carlist Wars. Both communities lived basically in the surrounding estancias; the Irish-Argentine community integrated Merlo's ruling class and four of the five members of the first municipal government belonged to this national affiliation. The Basques worked basically as dairy farmers. More than half of the population can trace its origins from the Italian and Spaniard immigrants that arrived to Merlo from the late 19th century and continued well into the 20th century. By the mid 20th century many market gardens were run by members of the Japanese and Portuguese communities. Looking for better jobs and well-paid salaries, people from the provinces and neighbor countries started to settle in Merlo in the late 1940s and 1950s. These people are from mestizo ascendancy and constitute - at the present days- the principal ethnic group in Merlo. By the same time many Polish families arrived to Merlo at the end of World War II. In the present days −and as a curious note− many supermarkets in the district are run by Chinese people. Demographic data Population: 469,985 (2001 census) Median age: total: 29.6 years male: 28.7 years female: 30.4 years Urbanized Population: 99.7% (2001) Population by origin: (2001) born in Buenos Aires Province: 60.2% born in the rest of Argentina: 34.6% foreign-born population: 5.74% Total fertility rate: 2.1 children born/woman (2001) Literacy: definition: age 10 and over can read and write (2001) total population: 98.19% male: 98.27% female: 98.11% Educational level: (population 15 years and more, 2001) Population that never attended school: 3.97% Basic needs poverty rate: 23.4% (2001) Dependency ratio: (2001) total: 60.1% population under 15 years: 48.9% population over 65 years: 11.1% Crime rate: 188 per 10,000 inhabitants (2005) Argentine Air Force Public services According 2001 National