Cultural Demography
The population of Chile is over 17.5 million. About 89 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, and 11 percent of the population belongs to small Protestant denominations. Spanish is the official language of the country.
In terms of ethnicity, most Chileans are either of Spanish ancestry, or mestizos (people of mixed indigenous and Spanish ancestry). Less than 5 percent of the population is of indigenous ancestry, mostly of the Mapuche tribe in south-central Chile. Chile is also home to a significant number of Irish, English, German, Italian, Slavic and Arab immigrants and their descendants.
Human Development
According to recent estimates, Chile maintained a higher literacy rate, a higher life expectancy age, and a lower infant mortality than most South American countries. About 95.7 percent of the population age 15 and older can read and write. The average life expectancy age is 76.96 years. The infant mortality rate is 8.36 deaths/1,000 live births. The birth rate is 15.03 births/1,000 population while the death rate is .87 deaths/1,000 population.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Chile in the high human development category, at 45th place.
Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at CountryWatch.com. See Bibliography for general research sources.