Freire is a

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 east a ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and

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 ...

Cautín Province Cautín Province ( es, Provincia de Cautín) is one of two provinces in the southern Chilean region of La Araucanía (IX), bounded on the north by Arauco and Malleco provinces, on the east by Argentina, on the south by Valdivia Province, and on ...

Araucanía Region The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region ( es, Región de La Araucanía ) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Te ...

. According to the 2002 census, the commune population was 25,514 and has an area of . The town of Freire lies at the junction of

Chile Highway 5 Chile Highway 5 or Route 5 known locally as ''Ruta 5'' is Chile's longest route, . It is part of the Pan-American Highway. Stretch It runs from the Peruvian border connecting with Peru Highway 1 north of Arica to Puerto Montt where it connects ...

and the Route CH-199, which links Freire with Villarrica and

Pucón Pucón (Mapudungun: "entrance to the cordillera") is a Chilean city and commune administered by the municipality of Pucón https://www.mipucon.com/ sitio web. It is located in the Province of Cautín, Araucanía Region, 100 km to the south ...

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 in ...

of Population and Housing by the National Statistics Institute (''Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas'' or INE) Freire had 25,514 inhabitants; of these, 7,629 (29.9%) lived in

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 ...

s and 17,885 (70.1%) in rural areas. At that time, there were 13,143 men and 12,371 women. The population grew by 10.9% (2,517 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a

, Freire is a third-level administrative division of Chile 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 who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Luis Armando Arias Lopez, and the council has the following members: * Luis García Friz * Luis Marchant Morales * Sebastian Daniel Rojas Rivera * Yanina Barría Rojas * Patricio Ríos González * José Oñate Orias Within the electoral divisions of Chile, Freire is represented in the Chamber of Deputies as a part of the 51st electoral district (together with Carahue,

Nueva Imperial Nueva Imperial (New Imperial, in English) a city and commune in the south of Chile. It is located in Cautín Province in the Araucanía Region. Nueva Imperial lies about to the west of Temuco, the regional capital. Geography Nueva Imperial is l ...

, Saavedra, Teodoro Schmidt, Pitrufquén, Cholchol). The commune is represented in the Senate as part of the 15th senatorial constituency (Araucanía-South).

References

External links

*
Municipality of Freire
{{Authority control Communes of Chile Populated places in Cautín Province 1895 establishments in Chile