Chileans

Chileans

Chilenos (Spanish)
Map of the Chilean diaspora
Total population
19,212,362[a]
Regions with significant populations
Chile        18,175,016[1][2]
Total diaspora	1,037,346[3]
Argentina	439,582[3]
United States	138,969[3]
Spain	106,060[3]
Sweden	56,138[3]
Canada	45,190[3][4]
Australia	37,608[3]
France	30,325[3]
Brazil	26,039[3]
Venezuela	23,296[3]
Germany	19,702[3]
Italy	3.199 (2023)"Cileni 2023".
Norway	10,083[3]
United Kingdom	9,000[3]
Portugal	8,400[3]
Mexico	6,404[5]
Netherlands	4,413[3]
New Zealand	2,959[3]
Denmark	2,522[3]
South Africa	1,000[3]
Other countries combined	125,324[3]
Languages
Chilean Spanish
Religion
Predominantly Christian[6] (Catholic (55%) Evangelical (16%)) Minority irreligious or unaffiliated (25%)[6]
Related ethnic groups
Other Latin Americans indigenous peoples in Chile Europeans
a. ^ As of 31 December 2019[update]. Based on the projected population of Chile as of 31 December 2019 (19,283,722) minus the non-Chilean population living in Chile as of 31 December 2019 (1,492,522) plus the Chilean population living abroad as of 2016 (1,037,346).

Chileans (Spanish: Chilenos, pronounced [tʃiˈlenos]) are an ethnic group and nation native to the country of Chile and its neighboring insular territories. Most Chileans share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. The overwhelming majority of Chileans are the product of varying degrees of admixture between European ethnic groups (predominantly Basques and Spaniards) with peoples indigenous to Chile's modern territory (predominantly Mapuche). Chile is a multilingual and multicultural society, but an overwhelming majority of Chileans have Spanish as their first language and either are Christians or have a Christian cultural background.

However, many Chileans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Chile. This has resulted due to immigration to Chile throughout its history, and thus the term "Chilean" can now also include people identifying with the country whose connection may not be ethnic, but cultural, historical, legal, or residential. For most modern Chileans, several or all of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their Chilean identity.

There is a strong correlation between the ratio of a Chilean's European and indigenous genetic components and their socioeconomic situation.^[7][8] There is a marked continuum^[8] existing between the lower classes of a high component of indigenous ancestry and the upper classes of a predominant component of European ancestry. Indigenous inheritance, whether cultural or genetic, is most pronounced in rural areas and in aspects of culture such as Chilean cuisine and Chilean Spanish. Although post-independence immigrants never made up more than 2% of the population, there are now hundreds of thousands of Chileans with German,^[9] British, French, Croatian, Italian or Palestinian^[10] ancestry, though these have also been mostly miscegenated with other groups within the country.

Though the majority of Chileans reside in Chile, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina,^[11] United States,^[12] Australia and Canada and countries of the European Union. Although small in number, Chilean people also make up a substantial part of the permanent population of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands (see: Chileans in the Falkland Islands).^[13]