Chile's 2017 census reported a population of 17,574,003 people. Its rate of population growth has been decreasing since 1990, due to a declining birth rate. By 2050 the population is expected to reach approximately 20.2 million people, at which it is projected to either stagnate or begin declining. About 85% of the country's population lives in urban areas, with 40% living in Greater Santiago. The largest agglomerations according to the 2002 census are Greater Santiago with 5.6 million people, Greater Concepción with 861,000 and Greater Valparaíso with 824,000.
Population
According to the total population was in , compared to only 6,143,000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2015 was 20.1%, 69.0% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 10.9% was 65 years or older.
Structure of the population
Ancestry and ethnic structure
Chile is a diverse society, home to individuals with varied ethnic backgrounds. Studies on the ethnic makeup of Chile differ significantly from one another.
A public health book from the University of Chile states that 65% of the population are White, with 30% being of Mixed origin and Amerindians comprising the remaining 5%. UNAM professor of Latin American studies, Francisco Lizcano, estimates that a 52.7% of the Chilean population can be classified as culturally European, with a 39.3% being Mestizo and the remaining 8% belonging to Amerindian cultures. Other social studies put the total number of Whites at over 60%. According to the CIA World Factbook, the entire population consists of a combined 95.4% of "Whites and Mixed-Race people" and 4.6% of Amerindians. These figures are based on a national census held in 2002, which classified the population as indigenous and non-indigenous rather than as White or Mestizo.
The 2011 Latinobarómetro survey asked respondents in Chile to identify their race, with the majority (67%) selecting "white," followed by "mestizo" (25%), and "indigenous" (8%). In a 2002 national poll, the majority of Chileans reported having "some" (43.4%) or "much" (8.3%) indigenous ancestry, while 40.3% claimed to have none.
Population genetics
Genetics studies fluctuate between 51.6% and 67.9% European; between 32.1% and 44.3% Amerindian; and 2.5%—6.3% African ancestry percentages. A genetic study by the University of Chile found that the average Chilean's genetic makeup consists of 64% Caucasian and 35% Amerindian ancestry. In a 2014 study of Chilean soldiers stationed in Arica, researchers found that the average self-identifying white person (37.9%) was genetically only 54% European.
European immigration
Chile - located far from Europe and difficult to reach - was never an attractive place for migrants from Europe, a situation recognized in the census of 1907, the census which recorded the highest percentage of Europeans versus the total population of Chile (2.2%).
European migration in the 19th century did not result in a remarkable change in the ethnic composition of Chile, except in the region of Magellan.
Spain was the largest source of European immigration to Chile, since there was never large-scale non-Spanish immigration, as happened in neighboring nations such as Argentina or Uruguay. Therefore, neither have whitened the Chilean population to level of overall percentages. Facts about the amount of the flow of immigration do not coincide with certain national chauvinistic discourse, in which Chile, like Argentina or Uruguay, would have been constituted due to immigration in one of the white Latin American countries, in contrast to what prevails in the rest of South America. However, it is undeniable that immigrants have played a role in Chilean society. Between 1851 and 1924 Chile only received 0.5% of the European immigration flow to Latin America, against 46% to Argentina, 33% to Brazil, 14% to Cuba, and 4% to Uruguay. This was because most of the migration occurred across the Atlantic, not the Pacific, and this migration occurred mostly before the construction of the Panama Canal. Also, Europeans preferred to stay in countries closer to their homelands instead of taking the long journey through the Straits of Magellan or crossing the Andes. In 1907, European-born reached a peak of 2.2% of the Chilean population; the proportion reduced to 1.9% in 1920 and 1.6% in 1930.