Census 2017: 17,574,003 people live in Chile

SANTIAGO – In Chile, 17,574,003 people live, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) which revealed the final results of the 2017 Census on Friday morning.

The figure implies an increase of 200,172 people compared to the preliminary results that had been delivered last August.

As detailed by its director, Ximena Clark, the country has a total of 8,601,989 men (48.9 percent) and 8,972,014 women (51.1 percent).

Another of the figures released by the INE is that 62.4 percent of the population is concentrated in the Metropolitan (40.5 percent), Biobío (11.6 percent) and Valparaíso (10.3 percent) regions.


Census 2017 – 17,574,003
Census 2012 – 16,634,603
Census 2002 – 15,116,435
Census 1992 – 13,348,401
Census 1982 – 11,329,736
Census 1970 – 8,884,768
Census 1960 – 7,374,115
Census 1952 – 5,932,995
Census 1940 – 5,023,539
Census 1930 – 4,287,445
Census 1920 – 3,730,235
Census 1907 – 3,249,279

Clark explained that the data “in terms of population evolution have total consistency with a global fertility rate that decreases year by year”.

“The population is aging rapidly, in 92, children between 0 and 14 years were 29.4 percent, today we have 20.1 percent,” Clark added.

On the other hand, adults over 65 went from 6.6% (1992) to 11.4% (2017). Finally, the adult population between 15 and 64 years of age increases from 64% (1992) to 68.6% (2017).

“Today we have a fertility rate of 1.79, which is below the population replacement rate, which is equivalent to 2.1, Obviously, when there is no migration from the countries, it translates into a medium to long period term, the population ends up decreasing, we are not in that phase yet,” she warned.

In addition, the number of homes in Chile is 6,499,355, of which, according to Clark, ” private homes in Chile are 6,486,533, while collective homes reach the figure of 12,822.”

This Census, which was carried out to have updated population data after the failure of the process developed in 2012, will present the rest of its results in April 2018 and in June of next year the database will be delivered.