| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 100,000 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Antofagasta, Valparaiso, La Serena, Coquimbo, Santiago de Chile. | |
| Languages | |
| Chilean Spanish, Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (mainly Eastern Orthodox) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Greeks, Greek diaspora, Greeks in Brazil |
There has been a community of Greeks in Chile since the sixteenth century. The Greek community in Chile is estimated to have 100,000 descendants. [1] Most reside either in the Santiago, Coquimbo or in the Antofagasta area.
The first immigrants from Greece arrived during the sixteenth century from Crete, and surnamed "Candia" after the island's capital, the current Heraklion. The surname, although at present, is very disconnected from its ancient origins. The majority of Greek immigrants arrived in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century, some as part of their spirit of adventure and escape from the rigors of the First World War and the burning of Smyrna in Asia Minor, although many Greeks had already settled in Antofagasta, including crews of the ships commanded by Arturo Prat for the Pacific War (1879–1883) in the naval battle of Iquique (boatswain Constantine Micalvi).
Amid this flood of foreigners who populated northern Chilean appeared the Greeks. There were numerous Collectivité Hellenic whose records were listed in the newspaper El Mercurio of Antofagasta, which said that between 1920 and 1935 there were about 4,000 Greeks in the city, and another 3,000 in saltpeter offices.[ citation needed ]
In 1926 the first women's association for excellence, filóptoxos (friends of the poor) was set up, chaired by Xrisí Almallotis. Since then as of 2022 [update] there have been four or five generations of descendants of Greeks. Some have moved south and are grouped mainly in Santiago and Valparaíso. Others returned to Greece after the First World War, but most of the immigrants stayed in their new country and formed Greek-Chilean families. [2] Constantino Kochifas Carcamo, owner of cruise company Cruceros Skorpios in Puerto Montt, is a member of this community.[ citation needed ]
Antofagasta is a community in Latin America established in 1890, notable for a town anniversary on 14 February, in which foreign communities set up a stand. Many of the original families moved to Santiago and Valparaíso, however there are still[ when? ] an estimated seventy current residents who were born in Greece. [2]
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 point 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 alone. 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.
Chile is a predominantly Christian country, with adherents of Islam being a minuscule minority. Due to the secular nature of Chile's constitution, Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. The statistics for Islam in Chile estimate a total Muslim population of approximately 5,000, representing less than 0.02% of the population. There are a number of Islamic organizations in Chile, including the Muslim Society of Chile and As-Salam Mosque in Santiago, Bilal Mosque in Iquique, the Mohammed VI Cultural Center in Coquimbo, and Islamic Foundation of Chile in Santiago.
Spanish is the de facto official and administrative language of Chile. It is spoken by 99.3% of the population in the form of Chilean Spanish, as well as Andean Spanish. Spanish in Chile is also referred to as "castellano". Although an officially recognized Hispanic language does not exist at the governmental level, the Constitution itself, as well as all official documents, are written in this language.
Chileans 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 with peoples indigenous to Chile's modern territory. 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.
British Latin Americans are Latin Americans of British ancestry.
German Chileans are Chileans descended from German immigrants, about 30,000 of whom arrived in Chile between 1846 and 1914. Most of these were from Bavaria, Baden and the Rhineland, and also from Bohemia in present-day Czech Republic, which were traditionally Catholic. A smaller number of Lutherans immigrated to Chile following the failed revolutions of 1848.
Immigration to Chile has contributed to the demographics and the history of this South American nation. Chile is a country whose inhabitants are mainly of Iberian, mostly of Andalusian and Basque origin, and Native American, mostly descended from Mapuche peoples. A moderate numbers of European immigrants settled in Chile during the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly Spanish, as well as Germans, British, French, Southern Slavs, and Italians who have made additional contributions to the racial complex of Chile. However, this immigration was never in a large scale, contrasting with mass migrations that characterized Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil, and therefore, anthropologically, its impact with lesser consequence. At the same time, some separate cultural aspects, such as German cakes, British afternoon tea, and Italian pasta, were preserved. The fusion is also visible in the architecture of Chilean cities. This intermarriage and mixture of cultures and races have shaped the present society and culture of Chile.
British Chileans are Chilean residents with fully or partial antecedents from the United Kingdom. The British have been very important in the formation of the Chilean nation. They include Chileans of English, Scottish, Ulster Scots, (Northern) Irish and Welsh ancestry. The numbers of Scottish and Welsh are higher in Patagonia, in Aysén and Magallanes regions. The highest percentage of British Chileans is found in Punta Arenas, followed by Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepcion, Viña del Mar and Antofagasta.
Christianity is the most widely professed religion in Chile, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. The country is secular and the freedom of religion is established under its Constitution.
Japanese Chileans are Chileans with ethnic origin from Japan. The first Japanese in Chile were 126 immigrants hired to work in the mining industry in 1903. As of 2010, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated there to be a total of roughly 2,600 Japanese people living in Chile. Among them were 1,108 temporary residents, 504 permanent residents and approximately a thousand born locally.
Spanish Chileans refer more often to Chileans of post-independence Spanish immigrant descent, as they have retained a Spanish cultural identity. People of pre-independence Spanish descent are usually not considered Spanish Chileans even though they form a large majority of the Chilean population and have Spanish surnames and ancestry. This is because they rejected Spanish identity for the emergent Chilean one on the eve of national independence.
Russian Chileans form a minor part of the Russian diaspora and a small group in comparison to the other ethnic groups in Chile. The 2002 Chilean Census reported 638 Russian citizens, although Russia's government estimates that 1,300 Russians live in Chile. There are more than 70,000 Orthodox Christians in Chile, the majority of them of Russian or Greek origin. Also, a significant amount of Russian Jews arrived in Chile during the 20th century.
Italian Chileans are Chilean-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Chile during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Chile. It is estimated that about 600,000 Chileans are of full or partial Italian ancestry, corresponding to about 3.5% of the total population, while Italians by birth in Chile are about 52,000. In Southern Chile, there were state-conducted Italian immigrant programs though they were not as massive as the German and Croatian immigrant programs. Families settled especially in Capitán Pastene, Angol, Lumaco, and Temuco but also in Valparaiso, Concepción, Chillán, Valdivia, and Osorno. One of the notable Italian influences in Chile is, for example, the sizable number of Italian surnames of a proportion of Chilean politicians, businessmen, and intellectuals, many of whom intermarried into the Castilian-Basque elites.
English Chileans are citizens of Chile who are descended from English emigrants. They are estimated to number 550,000-820,000.
In 2011, Chile was home to 42% of the world's astronomical infrastructure, consisting principally of telescopes. In 2015, it was estimated that Chile would contain more than 50% of the global astronomical infrastructure by 2030. In the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days of the year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop highly ambitious astronomical projects in the Atacama desert.
Arab Chileans are Chileans from predominantly Arab ancestry. People from the Arab world arrived in Chile as early as the mid-19th century. Historically, the Arabs of Chile were called Turks, Moors, Syrians, Lebanese, or Palestinians.
Swiss Chileans are Chilean citizens of Swiss ancestry. There are currently 15,000 Swiss citizens residing in Chile, with approximately 90,000 descendants of the 19th century immigrants.
Indians in Chile form one of the smaller populations of the Indian diaspora. The large majority of them of Sindhi descent. A few Indians went to Chile in the 1920s. Later more Indians migrated there in the 1980s - not only from India, but also from Hong Kong, Spain, Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines and Singapore.
The history of rail transport in Chile has gone through several periods of boom and bust. It began in 1840, with the construction by William Wheelwright of the first branch in the north. Further construction proceeded apace linking cities from Pisagua all the way to Puerto Montt.
German-Chilean relations are foreign relations between Germany and Chile. Around 12,300 kilometers separate Chile and Germany but both nations still share a wide range of bilateral relations. Over the course of the last 150 years many Germans have settled in Chile for several different reasons. Migrating in the opposite direction, several thousand Chileans sought refuge in Germany during Pinochet's dictatorship.
| Old Greek Diaspora | |
|---|---|
| New Greek Diaspora |
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| Traditional areas of Greek settlement | |
| Europe | |
| Caucasus and Central Asia | |
| Middle East | |
| Africa | |
| Latin America | |
| Asia-Pacific | |
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