Regions of Chile

Regions of Chile Regiones de Chile (Spanish)
Category	Unitary State
Location	Republic of Chile
Number	15
Populations	98,413 (Aysén) – 6,683,852 (Metropolitan Santiago)
Areas	80 km2 (31 sq mi) (Metropolitan Santiago) – 132,291 km2 (51,077.9 sq mi) (Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica)
Government	Limited autonomous government
Subdivisions	Province

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Chile is divided into 15 regions (in Spanish, regiones; singular región), which are the country's first-level administrative division. Each region is headed by an intendant (intendente), appointed by the President, and an indirectly elected body known as regional board (consejo regional).

Regions are divided into provinces (second-level administrative division), each headed by a governor (gobernador), appointed by the President. There are 54 provinces, in total. Provinces are further divided into communes (third and lowest level administrative division), which are governed by municipalities.

Naming

Each region is given a Roman numeral, followed by a name (e.g. IV Región de Coquimbo, read as "fourth region of Coquimbo" in Spanish). When the regional structure was created, Roman numerals were assigned in ascending order from north to south, with the northernmost region designated as I (first) and the southernmost region as XII (twelfth). The Santiago Metropolitan Region, located in the center of the country and home to the country's capital Santiago, was excluded from this naming scheme and given instead the initials RM, standing for Región Metropolitana ("Metropolitan Region" in Spanish). With the creation of regions XIV in the south and XV in the north (XIII is not used) in 2007, the north-south Roman numeral order was broken.

History of the regional structure

The administrative divisions of Chile were created in 1974 and limited to 13 regions (this limitation was eliminated in 2005 via a constitutional reform). Previously, Chile was divided into 25 provinces, which were further divided into departments, and then into communes. The new territorial organization was implemented in phases with some initial "pilot regions" beginning to operate in 1974, extending the process on January 1, 1976 to the rest of the country. The Santiago Metropolitan Region began to operate in April 1980.

In December 2006, two new regions were created: the northern Arica and Parinacota Region, by taking out the two northernmost provinces from the Tarapacá Region; and Los Ríos Region in the south, encompassing the provinces of Valdivia, formerly part of the Los Lagos Region, and Ranco, formerly part of Valdivia.^[1] Both regions became operative in October 2007.

List of regions

Key[2][3]	Flag	Name (English/Spanish)	Capital	Area (km2)	Population (2015)	Order from north to south
01		Tarapacá Región de Tarapacá	Iquique	42,225.8	336,769	2
02		Antofagasta Región de Antofagasta	Antofagasta	126,049.1	622,640	3
03		Atacama Región de Atacama	Copiapó	75,176.2	312,486	4
04		Coquimbo Región de Coquimbo	La Serena	40,579.9	771,085	5
05		Valparaíso Región de Valparaíso	Valparaíso	16,396.1	1,825,757	6
06		O'Higgins Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins	Rancagua	16,387	918,751	8
07		Maule Región del Maule	Talca	30,296.1	1,042,989	9
08		Bío Bío Región del Bío Bío	Concepción	37,068.7	2,114,286	10
09		Araucanía Región de La Araucanía	Temuco	31,842.3	989,798	11
10		Los Lagos Región de Los Lagos	Puerto Montt	48,583.6	841,123	13
11		Aisén Región Aisén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo	Coihaique	108,494.4	108,328	14
12		Magallanes Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena	Punta Arenas	132,291.1	164,661	15
14		Los Ríos Región de Los Ríos	Valdivia	18,429.5	404,432	12
15		Arica and Parinacota Región de Arica y Parinacota	Arica	16,873.3	239,126	1
16		Santiago Región Metropolitana de Santiago	Santiago	15,403.2	7,314,176	7

See also

• Communes of Chile
• ISO 3166-2:CL
• Provinces of Chile

References

Regions of Chile
Arica y Parinacota Tarapacá Antofagasta Atacama Coquimbo Valparaíso O'Higgins Maule Bío Bío La Araucanía Los Ríos Los Lagos Aysén Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena RM Santiago Metropolitan

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