The amount of foreign population in Chile remained stable in 2021, according to new data from the National Migration Service and the National Institute of Statistics (INE), who calculate that resident immigrants reached 1,482,390 as of December 31, 2021.
This figure represents an increase of 1.5% (1,460,047) compared to 2020; 2.3% in relation to 2019 (1,448,391) and 14.1% if compared to 1,299,43 in 2018. All this considering updated figures each of those years.
When disaggregating by region, the Metropolitan leads with more than 900 thousand foreigners; it is followed by Antofagasta, with more than 100 thousand; and in third place is Valparaíso, with just over 97 thousand immigrants.
By commune, there are a total of 42 localities with an estimated 10,000 or more foreigners, which totaled 1,140,323 people, representing 77% of the total foreign population residing in the country.
Thus, in detail, Santiago has the largest number of inhabitants from other countries with 226,103, Antofagasta is in second position with 64,043 and Independencia appears in third position with 57,600, and Central Station reaches 52,761 in fourth place.
Like the trend reflected in the 2019 and 2020 estimates, the majority of foreigners residing in the country as of December 31, 2021 come from Venezuela (30%), Peru (16.6%), Haiti (12.2%), Colombia (11.7%) and Bolivia ( 8.9%).
In this way, the Venezuelans consolidate as the majority population that lives in the country for the fourth consecutive year and three overcoming the barrier of the 400 thousand people.
Of the total number of foreigners, a total of 744,213 men and 738,177 women are estimated, which represents a masculinity ratio of 100.8 men for every hundred women, that is, each sex represents close to 50% of the estimate.
By age, it is concentrated between 25 and 39 years old, with a greater preponderance in the group between 30 and 34 years old, which concentrates 18% of the total foreign population.
Although last May, the director of the National Migration Service, Luis Eduardo Thayer pointed out that for this year work was being done to incorporate the population of irregular foreigners into this measurement, that did not happen. It is important to consider that this estimate does not include to people who entered through an unauthorized passage, since the closure of the border caused an increase in irregular migration. However, he noted that the “teams are working to include the irregular population, since We think it is important to make this reality visible, which is very challenging both from a statistical point of view and from a public policy point of view”maintains Thayer Correa.
The director of that service explains that “These are figures based on immigration procedures initiated, so they mainly include people in a regular situation or who have been regular. It is an estimate that takes a picture of the final context of the pandemic.”
He stressed that “with all this information, essential data is updated for the design and implementation of public policies, at all levels of the State. Today, we are delivering an important input for the planning of municipalities, regional governments and, of course, the Executive”, points out the head of this service.
The national director of the INE, Sandra Quijada, stressed that “the relevance of the migration issue has grown significantly in Chile due to the increase in the number and heterogeneity of migratory flows in the country, particularly during the last five years.”
As reported by the INE, these estimates consider the information from the 2017 Census provided by that body and administrative records from the National Immigration Service, the Investigative Police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Civil Registry and Identification Service.
The census data refer to the number of population born abroad habitually residing in Chile in the census on April 19, 2017, to which the census omission factor and an adjustment for aging were applied. While the administrative data includes foreigners with a residence permit and entry into the country since April 20, 2017, and who were in the national territory as of December 31, 2021. This includes the visa records generated by the services, records of granting of consular visas, in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; records from the border control and the resident system provided by the PDI, and the death record issued by the Civil Registry.
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