Demographics of Chile
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Population of Chile from 1950, projected up to 2050 (INE)

Chile. Agglomerations and cities above 10 000 inhabitants, calculation 2008

Chile has a population of over 16 million people. About 85% is urban-dwelling, roughly half of which (approx. 6.5 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.

After three decades of recession and economic decline, Chile living standards rebounded and had unprecedented economic growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. In relation to income distribution, some 6.2% of the country populates the upper economic income bracket, 15% the middle bracket, 21% the lower middle, 38% the lower bracket, and 20% the extreme poor.

The population consists predominantly of mestizos^[1][2][3] (the product of racial mixture between colonial Spanish settlers and indigenous tribes, in varying degrees) and Europeans, with Amerindian admixture. In ethnic identity, the country is relatively homogenous, stemming from a largely cohesive national identity known locally as Chilenidad.

Ethnic and genetic composition

The bulk of the Chilean population features a considerably homogenous mestizo quality^[4], the product of miscegenation between colonial Spanish immigrants (mainly soldiers) and Amerindian females.^[5] Chile's ethnic structure can be classified as White and Mestizo 95%, Amerindian 3%, other 2%. Other sources ^[2] cite that Mestizo population would be around 66% of the total popolation, Europeans would be 25% and Amerindian 7%. There will always be a debate in this matter because of the homogenous racial composition of the country.

Whites are mostly Spanish in origin (mainly Castilians, Andalusians and Basques), and to a lesser degree from Chile's various waves of immigrants (Italians, Germans, English, Croatians, Arabs, etc.). Foreigners where scarce in pre-independence Chile, totalling 600 in the whole spanish colonial period. At the 1960 census they numbered 105,000 (55% being Spanish, German, or Italians^{citation needed}, in that order). The black Afro-Chilean population was always scant, reaching a high of 25,000 during the colonial period; its racial contribution is less than 1%. The current Native American population is relatively small (see below) according to the censuses; their numbers are augmented when one takes into consideration those that are physically similar, and those that are linguistically or socially thought to belong to them.^[4]

Amerindian contribution tends to be strongest in the lower echelons of society, with the middle majority presenting a more balanced degree of Amerindian ancestry, while the upper echelons of society tend to register minimal or inexistent degree of Amerindian contribution.

Based solely on physical appearance, between 5 and 10% of the current population would be classified as Amerindian (a range coinciding with the last two census findings of indigenous self-identification), some 40% to 45% would be classified as white , and the remaining majority, more or less 50% of the population, would be exculsively of the Mestizo or White-Mestizo population.^[6]

According to the Program of Human Genetics of the University of Chile, the average ratio of racial mixture for Chile's overall population, calculated by the use of nuclear markers, is approximately 60% European contribution and 40% Amerindian, depending on the socioeconomic level.^[7] According to Rothhammer (1987/2004), that average ratio stands at 57% European contribution and 43% Amerindian.^[8]

Indigenous population

According to the 1992 Chilean census, a total of 10.5% of the total population declared themselves indigenous, irrespective of whether they currently practiced or spoke a native culture and language; almost one million people (9.7% of the total) declared themselves Mapuche, 0.6% declared to be Aymara, and a 0.2% reported as Rapanui.

At the 2002 census, only indigenous people that still practiced or spoke a native culture and language were surveyed: 4.6% of the population (692,192 people) fit that description; of these, 87.3% declared themselves Mapuche. ^[9].

Immigration

Relative to its overall population, Chile never experienced any large scale wave of immigrants.^[10] The total number of immigrants to Chile, both originating from other Latin American countries and all other (mostly European) countries, never surpassed 4% of its total population.^[1][10] This is not to say that immigrants were not important to the evolution of Chilean society and the Chilean nation.

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, Italians, French, Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Scandinavians, Portuguese, Greeks and Croats.) Though relatively few, they did transform the country culturally, economically and politically.

In 1848 a small but noteworthy German immigration took place, sponsored by the Chilean government with aims of colonising the southern region. Though comprised only by an estimated 8,000, these Germans (some were Swiss) 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 aftermaths 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, along with Lebanese and Syrians.

There's an established community of Japanese, one of the largest Asian-Latin American populations, descendants of migrant laborers whom arrived in the late 1800s and an estimated 5.000 of Japanese descent live in the country. Also included are sizable Chinese and Korean communities.^{citation needed}

The volume of immigrants from neighboring countries to Chile during those same periods was of a similar value, but there was an increase of Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino and Middle East Armenian immigration to Chile since the 1990s.

Currently, immigration from neighboring countries to Chile is greatest, and during the last decade immigration to Chile has doubled to 184,464 people in 2002, originating primarily from Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, and from other Latin American countries seeking new employment opportunities. A large majority of contract mine workers in famed mines in the Atacama Desert and the Andes come from neighboring Bolivia.

Afro-Chileans, descendants of slaves in a country where slavery was not widely practiced, live in an enclave of Arica province, near the Peruvian border.^{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}

Some historians question the validity of a theory which claims that in the mid 19th century thousands of Cherokee Indians fled the Trail of Tears and settled both in Chile and across South America generally, and that about 10,000 Cherokee descendants live in Chile today. Joaquin Murrieta the Spanish Mexican bandit of 1850s California is said to be a Chilean immigrant with Cherokee ancestry.^{citation needed}

Emigration of Chileans

Emigration of Chileans has decreased during the last decade: It is estimated that 857,781 Chileans live abroad, 50.1% of those being in Argentina (the highest number), 13.3% in the United States, 8.8% in Brazil, 4.9% in Sweden, and around 2% in Australia, with the rest being scattered in smaller numbers across the globe. Other Chilean refugees settled (not ranked by order of size) in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.

Many pro-Allende refugees in the 1970s fled to East Germany, including current president Michelle Bachelet had also lived in Australia.^[11] While anti-Pinochet refugees formed a large expatriate community in Europe and a smaller community in North America (the US and Canada).

Over 10,000 Chileans fleeing from both regimes settled in the US (a small number compared to other Latino groups) in the 1970s and 1980s, the highest number settled in Miami, Florida. But smaller enclaves are in Washington, DC; New York City; and California (the Los Angeles area - Beverly Hills and Long Beach); and San Francisco (San Mateo County).

Approximately 2,500 Chilean exiles fled to the UK in the early 1970s and by most recent estimates the Chilean British population is in its tens of thousands, and represents a significant proportion of the UK's one million strong Latin American community. By far the largest concentration of Chileans can be found in London with significant other communities being Birmingham, Sheffield and the Manchester-Liverpool Metropolitan area.^[12]

Historic emigration took place in the early 19th century when Chilean ranchers went to Mexico after their independence. Thousands of miners from Chile went to California, the U.S. during the 1850s California gold rush, as well in other gold rushes in Colorado (1870s) and the Yukon (1890s). Small numbers of Chilean miners also migrated to South Africa and Australia for the same reason.^{[13] [14]}

See also articles on overseas Chilean communities: Chilean American, Chilean Australian, and Chileans residing in France and Sweden.

Demographic data

Chile. Population density by comuna, based on census 2002

Population

16,284,741 (July 2007 est.)

16,284,742

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.)

Median age

total: 30.7 years

male: 29.8 years

female: 31.7 years (2007 est.)

Population growth rate

0.916% (2007 est.)

[[1.223(2007 est.)

Death rate

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

Net migration rate

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

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.)

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.)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 76.96 years

male: 73.69 years

female: 80.4 years (2007 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.97 children born/woman (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS

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

Deaths: 1,400 (2003 est.)

Ethnic groups

Religions

Main article: Religion in Chile

Catholic, 70%

Protestant or evangelical, 15.1%

Jehovah's Witnesses, 1%

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

Jewish, 0.1%

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.^[9]

Languages

Spanish is the official language, universal among the population.

Mapudungun (Mapuche) and various other smaller indigenous languages.

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

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 96.2%

Male: 96.4%

Female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

References and web links

• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.

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