Administrative division of Chile

The administrative structure of Chile is three-tiered below the central level and is based on Chapter XIV of the 1980 constitution .

Regions

16 regions of Chile (until 2018)

The top level is made up of the 16 regions . The original structure based on Legislative Decree (Decreto Ley) No. 575 of July 10, 1974 provided for 13 regions, namely the metropolitan region of Santiago (Region Metropolitana de Santiago) and regions numbered from north to south with Roman numerals from I to XII. The number XIII is not assigned, but z. B. by the Statistical Institute, the metropolitan region of Santiago in classifications with the number 13. In October 2007, Region XIV was separated from Region X and Region XV from Region I and made independent. On September 6, 2018, Region XVI (Ñuble), formed from the northern province of Region VIII (Bío-Bío), was added.

Tasks and facilities

The regions are each headed by an intendant (Intendente) who only requires the trust of the Chilean President and who resides in the region. The director is the general representative of the president in the region and is subject to his instructions. He is responsible for the coordination, supervision and control of the public institutions in the region.

For the regional administration, there is a regional government (Gobierno regional) for the social, cultural and economic development of the region, which is formed from the director and the regional council. The regional government is a public corporation with its own assets.

The regional council (Consejo regional) is the general decision-making body of the region and is intended to ensure citizen participation. He is directly elected for four years. The re-election of its members is permitted. For its part, the regional council elects a president from among its members with an absolute majority of its members, who can be recalled with a two-thirds majority or resign with the consent of the majority of council members. The deputies and senators elected in the respective region have the right to be present and speak at the meetings of the regional council, but not to vote.

Geographical arrangement

Except for the metropolitan region of Santiago, all regions border both the Pacific and the two eastern neighbors Bolivia and Argentina, so that the elongated country is divided by essentially horizontal borders. The metropolitan area of ​​Santiago lies between Regions V and VI. Due to the new formation of regions XIV, XV (2007) and XVI (2018), the order is no longer continuous from north to south.

List of regions

The following list shows the area and population of the regions and the associated provinces.

location	No.	Surname	Capital	Population census 2017	Area in km²	Provinces
	I.	Tarapacá	Iquique	330,558	42,225.8	Iquique El Tamarugal
	II	Antofagasta	Antofagasta	607,534	126,049.1	Antofagasta El Loa Tocopilla
	III	Atacama	Copiapó	286.168	75,176.2	Chañaral Copiapó Huasco
	IV	Coquimbo	La Serena	757.586	40,579.9	Elqui Choapa Limarí
	V	Valparaíso	Valparaíso	1,815,902	16,396.1	Valparaíso Isla de Pascua (Easter Island) Los Andes Petorca Quillota San Antonio San Felipe de Aconcagua Marga Marga
	VI	Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins	Rancagua	914,555	16,387.0	Cachapoal Cardenal Caro Colchagua
	VII	Mouth	Talca	1,044,950	30,296.1	Talca Cauquenes Curicó Linares
	VIII	Biobío	Concepción	1,556,805	23,890.2	Concepción Arauco Bío-Bío
	IX	Araucanía	Temuco	957.224	31,842.3	Cautín Malleco
	X	Los Lagos	Puerto Montt	828.708	48,583.6	Llanquihue Chiloe Osorno Palena
	XI	Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo	Coyhaique	103.158	108,494.4	Coihaique Aisén Capitán Prat General Carrera
	XII	Magallanes y Antártica Chilena	Punta Arenas	166,533	132,291.1	Magallanes Tierra del Fuego Última Esperanza Antártica Chilena
	XIV	Los Ríos	Valdivia	384,837	18,429.5	Valdivia Ranco
	XV	Arica y Parinacota	Arica	226.068	16,873.3	Arica Parinacota
	XVI	Ñuble	Chillan	480,609	13,178.5	Itata Diguillín Punilla
	RM	Metropolitana de Santiago	Santiago de Chile	7,112,808	15,403.2	Chacabuco Cordillera Maipo Melipilla Santiago Talagante

Historical development of the regions

The basis of the current division is initially the Legislative Decree (Decreto Ley) No. 575 of July 10, 1974. Article 1 of this article resulted in the formation of the following regions on the basis of the previous division:

number	Capital	previous provinces
I.	Iquique	Tarapacá
II	Antofagasta	Antofagasta
III	Copiapó	Atacama
IV	La Serena	Coquimbo
V	Valparaíso	Aconcagua, Valparaiso; Department of San Antonio (Prov. Santiago)
VI	Rancagua	O'Higgins, Colchagua
VII	Talca	Coricó, Talca, Maule, Linares
VIII	Concepción	Ñuble, Concepción, Arauco, Bío-Bío
IX	Temuco	Malleco, Cautín
X	Puerto Montt	Valdivia, Osorno, Llanquihue, Chiloé
XI	Coyhaique	Aisen
XII	Punta Arenas	Magallanes, Chilean Antarctic Territory
Area Metropolitana		Santiago without the department of San Antonio

By Legislative Decree ( Decreto Ley ) No. 1230 of October 27, 1975, some border adjustments were made, which affected Regions I, II, VIII, IX, X and XI. Region XI was named Aisén del General Carlos Ibañez del Campo , Region XII was named Magallanes y Antártica Chilena .

Legislative Decree 2339 of October 2, 1978 designated the regions as follows:

• I. Región de Tarapacá
• II. Region de Antofagasta
• III. Atacama region
• IV. Región de Coquimbo
• V. Región de Valparaíso
• VI. Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins
• VII. Región del Maule
• VIII. Región del Bío-Bío
• IX. Región de la Araucanía
• X. Región de Los Lagos
• XI. Región Aysen del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
• XII. Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena
• RM. Metropolitan Region of Santiago

Further border adjustments were made by Legislative Decree No. 2867 of September 20, 1979. These affected all regions with the exception of Region VIII Bío-Bío.

Laws 20.174 and 20.175 of March 16 and 23, 2007 created the new regions XIV Los Ríos and XV Arica y Parinacota. The XVI Ñuble region was separated from the Bío-Bío region with effect from September 6, 2018.

Provinces

The regions are in turn divided into 56 provinces . They are each headed by a governor ( gobernador ) who is appointed by the Chilean president and can be removed from office and who is subject to the instructions of the director of the region concerned.

List of provinces

The following list shows the area and population of the provinces. The province of Ñuble , which until then belonged to the VIII. Region (Bío-Bío) with the capital Chillán , became the new XVI. Region (Ñuble) raised and simultaneously divided into three newly created provinces.

region	province	main place	Area (km²)	Population (2002 census)	Population (2012 census)
I.	Iquique	Iquique	2,835.3	216.419	275.042
I.	Tamarugal	Pozo Almonte	39,390.5	22,531	20,053
II	Antofagasta	Antofagasta	67,813.5	318.779	359.353
II	El Loa	Calama	41,999.6	143,689	142,686
II	Tocopilla	Tocopilla	16,236.0	31,516	28,840
III	Copiapó	Copiapó	32,538.5	155.713	183.973
III	Chañaral	Chañaral	24,436.2	32,132	28,874
III	Huasco	Vallenar	18,201.5	66,491	72,145
IV	Elqui	Coquimbo	16,895.1	365.371	442,999
IV	Choapa	Illapel	10,131.6	81,681	82,857
IV	Limarí	Oval	13,553.2	156.158	161,950
V	Valparaíso	Valparaíso	2,146.6	651.821	713.065
V	Isla de Pascua (Easter Island)	Hanga Roa	163.6	3,791	5,761
V	Los Andes	Los Andes	3,054.1	91,683	102,819
V	Petorca	La Ligua	4,588.9	70,610	72.286
V	Quillota	Quillota	1,113.1	175.917	190,525
V	San Antonio	San Antonio	1,511.6	136,594	144.220
V	San Felipe de Aconcagua	San Felipe	2,659.2	131,911	143,698
V	Marga Marga	Quilpué	1,159.0	277,525	325.207
VI	Cachapoal	Rancagua	7,384.2	542.901	601.810
VI	Cardenal Caro	Pichilemu	3,324.8	41,160	39,068
VI	Colchagua	San Fernando	5,678.0	196,566	210,528
VII	Talca	Talca	9,937.8	352.966	370.154
VII	Cauquenes	Cauquenes	3,027.2	57,088	54,145
VII	Curicó	Curicó	7,280.9	244.053	266.457
VII	Linares	Linares	10,050.2	253,990	264.292
VIII	Concepción	Concepción	3,439.0	912,889	959.336
VIII	Arauco	Lebu	5,463.3	157.255	157.052
VIII	Bío-Bío	Los Angeles	14,987.9	353.315	373.981
IX	Cautín	Temuco	18,409.0	667.920	692,582
IX	Malleco	Angol	13,433.3	201.615	196.910
X	Llanquihue	Puerto Montt	14,876.4	321,493	368,427
X	Chiloe	Castro	9,181.6	154,766	161,654
X	Osorno	Osorno	9,223.7	221.509	221,496
X	Palena	Chaitén	15,301.9	18,971	16,137
XI	Coyhaique	Coyhaique	12,942.5	51.103	54,575
XI	Aysén	Puerto Aysén	46,588.8	29,631	28,858
XI	Captain Prat	Cochrane	37,043.6	3,837	4,003
XI	General Carrera	Chile Chico	11,919.5	6,921	6,835
XII	Magallanes	Punta Arenas	38,400.8	121,675	128.199
XII	Antártica Chilena	Puerto Williams	1,265,853.7	2,392	1,792
XII	Tierra del Fuego	Porvenir	22,592.7	6,904	6,656
XII	Última Esperanza	Puerto Natales	55,443.9	19,855	18,685
XIV	Valdivia	Valdivia	10,197.2	259.243	272,527
XIV	Ranco	La Unión	8,232.3	97.153	91,656
XV	Arica	Arica	8,726.4	186,488	210.822
XV	Parinacota	Putre	8,146.9	3,156	1.991
XVI	Punilla	San Carlos	5,202.5	---	--- (2017: 106,968)
XVI	Diguillín	Bulnes	5,229.5	---	--- (2017: 319,809)
XVI	Itata	Coelemu / Quirihue	2,746.5	---	--- (2017: 53,832)
RM	Santiago	Santiago	2,030.3	4,668,473	4,927,624
RM	Cordillera	Puente Alto	5,528.3	522.856	608.235
RM	Chacabuco	Colina	2,076.1	132,798	203.993
RM	Maipo	San Bernardo	1,120.5	378,444	440,591
RM	Melipilla	Melipilla	4,065.7	141.165	161,727
RM	Talagante	Talagante	582.3	217,449	262,665

Communities

The municipalities are in the third stage . In 2010 there were 346 municipalities with an area that partly exceeded that of the German federal states. The largest municipality in the country is Puerto Natales (Region XII, Province Última Esperanza) with 48,974.2 km². The smallest municipality is San Ramón (Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Province Santiago) with 6.5 km².

In the 2002 census, Puente Alto (Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Province of Santiago) had the most inhabitants with 492,915 inhabitants, while Ollagüe (Region II, Province of El Loa) had the fewest inhabitants with 318.

The mayor (Alcalde) and the local council (Concejo) are appointed as organs of the municipal administration (Municipalidad) .

The municipal council is elected by universal suffrage for a period of four years. The re-election of its members is permitted.

References

1. ↑ Art. 111 para. 1 of the Constitution
2. ↑ Article 112 of the Constitution
3. ↑ Art. 111 paras. 2 and 3 of the constitution
4. ↑ Article 113 of the Constitution
5. ↑ Población: por sexo y regiones. (pdf) In: Síntesis de Resultados Censo 2017. Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, Chile, August 2018, p. 6 , accessed on October 10, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Added to this are the internationally unrecognized claims in the Antarctic with 1,250,000.0.
7. ↑ Article 116 of the Constitution
8. ↑ Results of the 2012 census, accessed on March 5, 2014 ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ The Province of Marga Marga was formed by Law No. 20.368 of July 14, 2009 with effect from March 11, 2010 from the municipalities of Limache and Olmué (previously Province of Quillota) and Quilpué and Villa Alemana (previously Province of Valparaíso).
10. ↑ Including the internationally not recognized territorial claims of Chile in the Antarctic with 1,250,000 km² and 130 inhabitants (2002) and 115 inhabitants (2012).
11. ↑ Compilation based on: Instituto, Nacional de Estadísticas, Divisíon Politico-Administrativa y Censal, 2007, Santiago 2008
12. ↑ Art. 118 para. 1 of the Constitution
13. ↑ Art. 119 Para. 1 of the Constitution

Web links

Constitution of the Republic of Chile from 1980