The Facts

Republic of Chile

National name: República de Chile

President: Michelle Bachelet (2006)

Current government officials

Land area: 289,112 sq mi (748,800 sq km); total area: 292,260 sq mi (756,950 sq km)

Population (2008 est.): 16,432,536 (growth rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 14.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 8.1/1000; life expectancy: 77.1; density per sq mi: 21

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Santiago, 5,333,100 (metro. area), 4,372,800 (city proper)

Other large cities: Viña del Mar, 303,100; Valparaíso, 274,100; Talcahuano, 252,800; Temuco, 247,200; Concepción, 217,600

Monetary unit: Chilean Peso

Language: Spanish

Ethnicity/race: white and white-Amerindian 95%, Amerindian 3%, other 2%

National Holiday: Independence Day, September 18

Religions: Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 11%, small Jewish population

Literacy rate: 96% (2006 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP(2007 est.): $231.1 billion; per capita $13,900. 

Real growth rate:5%. 

Inflation: 4.4%.

Unemployment: 7%. 

Arable land:3%. 

Agriculture: grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus, beans; beef, poultry, wool; fish; timber.

Labor force: 6.3 million; agriculture 13.6%, industry 23.4%, services 63% (2003). 

Industries: copper, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles.

Natural resources: copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum, hydropower.

Exports: $58.21 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): copper, fruit, fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals, wine.

Imports: $35.37 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, electrical and telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, vehicles, natural gas. 

Major trading partners: U.S., Japan, China, South Korea, Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Argentina (2004).

Communications: Telephones:main lines in use: 3.436 million (2005); mobile cellular: 10.57 million (2005). 

Radio broadcast stations: AM 180 (eight inactive), FM 64, shortwave 17 (one inactive) (1998). 

Television broadcast stations: 63 (plus 121 repeaters) (1997). Internet hosts: 506,055 (2006). Internet users: 6.7 million (2005).

Transportation:

Railways: total: 6,585 km (2005). 

Highways: total: 79,605 km; paved: 16,080 km; unpaved: 63,525 km (2001).

Waterways: 725 km. 

Ports and harbors: Antofagasta, Arica, Huasco, Iquique, Lirquen, San Antonio, San Vicente, Valparaiso.

Airports: 36 (2006 est.).

International disputes: Chile rebuffs Bolivia’s reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile to Bolivian gas and other commodities; Peru proposes changing its latitudinal maritime boundary with Chile to an equidistance line with a southwestern axis; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British claims.

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