Demographics of Chile

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This article is about the demographic features of the population of Chile, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

For the article about the Chileans as a nation and culture, see Chilean people.

Chile has a population of over 16 million people. About 85% is urban-dwelling, roughly half of which (approx. 7.0 million people) is densely concentrated in Greater Santiago. The population growth is amongst the lowest in Latin America, at around 0.97%, and comes in third only to Uruguay and Cuba. The population is growing enough to fill the replacement rate, with the country's population expected to reach 20 million by the year 2025, and 20.2 million by 2050.

Contents 1 Origins and ethnicity 1.1 Racial and ethnic structure 1.2 Immigration 1.3 Other ethnic groups 2 CIA World Factbook demographic statistics 2.1 Population 2.2 Age structure 2.3 Median age 2.4 Population growth rate 2.5 Death rate 2.6 Net migration rate 2.7 Sex ratio 2.8 Infant mortality rate 2.9 Life expectancy at birth 2.10 Total fertility rate 2.11 HIV/AIDS 2.12 Ethnic groups 2.13 Religions 2.14 Languages 2.15 Literacy 3 References and web links

[edit] Origins and ethnicity

[edit] Racial and ethnic structure

The Chilean population is approximately 30% white, with mestizos of predominantly white (castizos) ancestry further estimated at 65%.^[1] Another recent study estimates that the white population corresponds to 52.7% of Chileans.^[2] The White and Mestizo figures appear combined in some sources, so that Chile's population is classified as 95.4% whites and mestizos by the CIA and other.^[3][4]

According to the Census 2002, 4.6% of the Chilean population was Indian, although most show varying degrees of miscegenation.^[5]

[edit] Immigration

The largest group by national origin that makes up the Chilean population arrived from Spain (including Basques, both from the Spanish Basque Country and the Northern Basque Country in southern France). Estimates of Basque descendants in Chile ranges from 10% (1,600,000) to as much as 27% (4,500,000).^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Some non-Spanish European immigrants arrived in Chile - mainly to the northern and southern extremities of the country - during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, including Britons (includes Scots and Irish), Italians, French, Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks and former Yugoslavians (esp. Macedonians). For the most part, these consolidated themselves with the upper and middle classes.^{[citation needed]} Another group of immigrants are historically significant, Macedonian with 380,000 to 500,000 with the highest number of descendants of Croats.^[11][12] They did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.

The German immigration to Chile took place in 1848, laying the foundations of the present German-Chilean community. Sponsored by the Chilean government with aim of colonising the southern region, these Germans (which included German-speaking Swiss, Silesians, Alsatians and Austrians), markedly influenced the cultural composition of the southern provinces of Valdivia, Llanquihue and Osorno. They settled lands opened by the Chilean government in order to populate the region.

In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, 2,200 Spanish Republicans landed in Valparaiso brought by the Winnipeg, a French ship which had been transformed by Pablo Neruda, then Consul in Paris for Immigration.

Also worth mentioning are the sizable Middle Eastern population, especially Palestinian Chilean communities, the latter being the largest colony of that people outside of the Arab world,^{[13] [14] [15]} along with Lebanese and Syrians, and a large Middle East Armenian community.

European immigration, and to a lesser degree from the Middle East, produced during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (large "waves" in America), after corresponding to the Atlantic coasts of the Southern Cone ( that is, Argentina, Uruguay and South Brazil), was the most significant Latin America is favored mainly by the intense traffic that is produced through extreme south of the country until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1920, although other numbers came from Argentina, across the Cordillera.

[edit] Other ethnic groups

Chile administers Easter Island a territory 4,100 kms. west of the mainland. The Rapa Nui people are native to the island and are Polynesian in origin. About 3,500 live on the island, but 10,000 more came to the mainland in the 20th century. The Rapa Nui people fought to obtain self-autonomous government in Easter Island with success.^{[citation needed]}

There is a sizeable population of Roma people in Chile. They are widely and easily recognized, and continue to hold on to their traditions and language and many continue to live semi-nomadic lifestyles traveling from city to city and living in small tented communities.^{[citation needed]}

Afro-Chileans or Chileans of African descent are concentrated in the Arica province facing the Peruvian border. They are descendants of slaves brought by the Spanish in the 17th century, but slavery was abolished by the Peruvian and Chilean governments in the 1830s. They are minuscule in number; about one percent of the population are of African descent.^{[citation needed]}

Chile has a small Asian population (an estimated total of 50,000 Asians in the country) consist of recently arrived immigrants. The Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and the Filipinos are the main ethnic groups. Asian-Chileans live in their own communities and most Asian immigrants pursue economic business niches in the country.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

[edit] Population

16,284,741 (July 2007 est.)

16,284,742

[edit] Age structure

0-14 years: 24.1% (male 2,010,576/female 1,920,951)

15-64 years: 67.4% (male 5,480,703/female 5,492,988)

65 years and over: 8.5% (male 576,698/female 802,825) (2007 est.)

[edit] Median age

total: 30.7 years

male: 29.8 years

female: 31.7 years (2007 est.)

female: 18.5 years (2009 est.)

[edit] Population growth rate

1.027%(2001 est.)

0.916% (2006 est.)

[edit] Death rate

5.87 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

[edit] Net migration rate

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

[edit] Sex ratio

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.047 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 0.998 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.718 male(s)/female

total population: 0.982 male(s)/female (2007 est.)

[edit] Infant mortality rate

total: 8.36 deaths/1,000 live births

male: 9.09 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 7.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

[edit] Life expectancy at birth

total population: 76.96 years

male: 73.69 years

female: 80.34 years (2007 est.)

[edit] Total fertility rate

1.98 children born/woman (2007 est.)

[edit] HIV/AIDS

People living with HIV/AIDS: 26,000 (2003 est.)

Deaths: 1,400 (2003 est.)

[edit] Ethnic groups

White *	Mestizos	Amerindian	Other
52.7%	44.0%	3.2%	0.1%

*N.B.In the case of Chile, the percentages were taken from the study of Lizcano (2005)^[2], but these vary according to other studies, 30% of Chileans as white and 65% as either castizo ("white mestizo").^[16] in Another study Esteva-Fabregat (1988), a white majority that would exceed 60% of the Chilean population. In the 2002 census reported 4.6% of Indians in the country (most also varying degrees of miscegenation).

[edit] Religions

Catholic, 70%

Protestant or evangelical, 15.1%

Jehovah's Witnesses, 1%

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 0.9%

Jewish, 0.2%

Atheist or Agnostic, 8.3%

Others, 4.4%.

Less than 0.1% are either Eastern Orthodox or Muslim.

For the precise numbers of declared religions among the population ages 15 and over as indicated by the results of the latest census, see source *2002 Census data

[edit] Languages

Spanish is the official language, universal among the population.

Mapuche language speakers mainly in Araucanía Region in southern Chile.

Several thousand speakers of German, French, Italian, Croatian, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, and more foreign languages in immigrant communities, primarily in Santiago and Southern Chile.

[edit] Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 98.1%

Male: 96.4%

Female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

[edit] References and web links

• Afrodescendants Foundation in Chile

v • d • e Demographics of South America Sovereign states Argentina · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Guyana · Panama1 · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago1 · Uruguay · Venezuela Dependencies Aruba1 / Netherlands Antilles1 (Netherlands) · Falkland Islands / South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (UK) 2 / French Guiana (France) 1 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of North America and/or Central America.  2 Territories also in or commonly considered to be part of Antarctica.

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