Providencia (,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: "providence") is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

located in Santiago Province,

Santiago Metropolitan Region Santiago Metropolitan Region ( es, link=no, Región Metropolitana de Santiago) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions. It is the country's only landlocked administrative region and contains the nation's capital, Santiago. Mos ...

. Part of

Greater Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, it is bordered by the communes of Santiago to the west, Recoleta to the northwest,

Las Condes Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper-mid- to high income families, and known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's economi ...

and

Vitacura Vitacura is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is one of the most expensive and fashionable areas of Santiago. Inhabitants are primarily high income families. It belongs to the Northeastern zone o ...

to the northeast,

La Reina La Reina ( Spanish: "The Queen") is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region created in 1963 from an eastern portion of the Ñuñoa commune. It belongs to the Northeastern zone of Santiago de Chile. La Re ...

to the east, and

Ñuñoa Ñuñoa (; from Mapudungun ''Ñuñohue'', "place of yellow flowers") is a commune of the Northeastern zone of Santiago, in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of Chile. According to the 2021 Urban Life Quality Index (ICVU), it is considered the fou ...

to the south. It belongs to the Northeastern zone of Santiago de Chile. Providencia is home to a large upper middle to upper-class population and it holds the region's highest percentage of population over 60 (22%). It contains many high-rise apartment buildings as well as a significant portion of Santiago's commerce. It is notable for its large, old and elegant houses inhabited in the past by the Santiago elite and now mostly used as offices. The municipality is also home to many embassies, including those of Canada, Poland, Hungary, Italy, France, Egypt, Russia, Japan, China, and Uruguay.

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Providencia spans an area of and has 120,874 inhabitants (53,082 men and 67,792 women), and the commune is an entirely

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...

. The population grew by 8.7% (9,692 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Indicators

*Area: 14.4 km²Sistema de Información Regional
Ministry of Planning of Chile. *Population: 126,436 (2009 projection) *Average annual household income: US$53,767 ( PPP, 2006) *Population below poverty line: 3.5% (2006) *Regional quality of life index: 83.01, high, 5 out of 52 (2005) *

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, w ...

: 0.911, 4 out of 341 (2003)

Notable residents

Patricio Aylwin Patricio Aylwin Azócar (; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator. He was the first president of Chile after dictator Augusto Pinochet, a ...

, former president *

Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military dic ...

, former president * Gabriel Valdés, former senator

Administration

As a commune, Providencia is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law. ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, headed by an

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) ...

who is directly elected every four years. The 2021-2024 alcaldesa is

Evelyn Matthei Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet (born November 11, 1953) is a Chilean politician who served as Minister of Labor and Social Security under Chilean President Sebastián Piñera until July 2013. She was the Independent Democrat Union Party's nominee fo ...

(

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

). The communal council has the following members:

Chile Vamos (Spanish for "Let’s go Chile”) is a centre-right to right-wing political coalition of three political parties in Chile. The coalition was created on 29 January 2015 by the general secretaries of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI), Nationa ...

* Manuel José Monckeberg ( RN) * Cristofer Brunetti Nuñez ( RN) * Raphael Bergoeing Vela ( Evópoli) * Carolina Plaza Guzmán (

) Other * Pablo Jaeger Cousiño ( PDC) * Matías Bellolio Merino ( REP)

Apruebo Dignidad ''Apruebo Dignidad'' (; in English, ''Approve Dignity'', AD) is a left-wing Chilean electoral coalition officially created on 11 January 2021, by the Broad Front and Chile Digno in preparation for the Constitutional Convention election. Histo ...

* Tomás Echiburu Altamirano ( RD) * Macarena Fernández Donoso ( CS) * Luis Ibacache Silva ( PC) (

Democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

) * Josefa Errazuriz Guilisasti (Independent) Providencia belongs to Electoral District No. 10, with

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, La Granja,

Macul Macul ( Quechua: "to stretch out right hand") is a commune (smallest administrative subdivision in Chile) of Chile located in the central-eastern part of the Greater Santiago area, bordered by the communes of Ñuñoa to the north, San Joaquín ...

and San Joaquín, and to the 7th (

Senatorial A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

) District (

). It is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon Res ...

of the

National Congress ''National Congress'' is a term used in the names of various political parties and legislatures . Political parties *Ethiopia: Oromo National Congress *Guyana: People's National Congress (Guyana) *India: Indian National Congress *Iraq: Iraqi Nati ...

by the deputies Gonzalo Winter ( CS), Jorge Alessandri Vergara (

), Johannes Kaiser ( REP), María Luisa Cordero (IND), Lorena Fries (IND), Helia Molina ( PPD), Alejandra Placencia ( PC) and

Emilia Schneider Emilia Schneider Videla (born 23 October 1996) is a Chilean feminist, activist, and politician. In the 2021 Chilean general election, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Chile with the left-wing Commons party. She is the first openly ...

(

COM Com or COM may refer to: Computing * COM (hardware interface), a serial port interface on IBM PC-compatible computers * COM file, or .com file, short for "command", a file extension for an executable file in MS-DOS * .com, an Internet top-level d ...

). The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has its headquarters in Providencia.Portada
." Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Retrieved on 12 April 2012. "Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, DGAC : Miguel Claro 1314, Providencia, Santiago de Chile :: Clasificador 3, Correo 9"

Areas of interest

Providencia includes

Barrio Bellavista Barrio Bellavista (''Bellavista Neighborhood'') is an area that lies between the Mapocho River and San Cristóbal Hill in Santiago, Chile. It is known as Santiago's bohemian quarter, with numerous restaurants, boutiques, avant-garde galleries, ...

, a bohemian area populated with artists and performers. The latter lies in the shadow of

Cerro San Cristóbal Cerro is Spanish for "hill" or "mountain". Toponyms ;Bolivia: * Cerro Rico, the "Rich Mountain" containing silver ore near Potosi, Bolivia ;Brazil: * Cerro Branco, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul * Cerro Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, a munici ...

, a prominent hill in the city topped by a 22 m statue of

The Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

. The north of Providencia is its financial and commercial district (centred on Providencia and Nueva Providencia (Ex 11 de Septiembre) avenues), while the remainder of it contains high-priced residential development. Other notable areas of interest in Providencia include the Metropolitan Zoo, the Teleférico (an aerial gondola) that transports people from the foot of Pedro de Valdivia Norte Street to the top of San Cristóbal Hill), several television networks and

Radio Cooperativa Radio Cooperativa is a radio station in Chile, based in Santiago. It is operated by ''Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones S.A.''. The station is notable for opposing the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990) and denouncing its human rights v ...

References

External links

* *
Municipality of Providencia
{{Communes in Santiago Metropolitan Region Geography of Santiago, Chile Populated places in Santiago Province, Chile Communes of Chile Diplomatic districts Populated places established in 1897 1897 establishments in Chile Providencia, Chile