Santa María ("St. Mary" in Spanish) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and commune in the San Felipe de Aconcagua Province of central

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

's Valparaíso Region.

Geography

Santa María spans an area of .

Demographics

According to the 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the National Statistics Institute, Santa María has 12,813 inhabitants (6,427 men and 6,386 women). Of these, 8,126 (63.4%) lived in

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

s and 4,687 (36.6%) in

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

s. The population grew by 10.7% (1,238 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Administration

As a commune, Santa María 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 communal council (''consejo comunal''), which is headed by a directly elected

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

. The current alcalde is Claudio Zurita Ibarra ( PPD). The communal council has the following members: * José Grbic Bernal ( RN) * María Cristina Meza Espinoza (PPD) * Marisol Ponce Cisterna ( UDI) * David Olguín Vargas ( PS) * Eloy Ibacache González (PPD) * Nelson Lemus Osorio ( DC) Within the

electoral divisions of Chile This article covers the electoral division of Chile, which involves two distinct systems: # Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies and Senate of Chile, Senate: Chile is divided into electoral districts and senatorial constituencies for ...

, Santa María 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 Bourb ...

by Marco Antonio Núñez ( PDC) and Gaspar Rivas ( RN) as part of the 11th electoral district, together with Los Andes, San Esteban, Calle Larga, Rinconada, San Felipe, Putaendo, Panquehue, Llaillay and Catemu. The commune is represented in the

Senate 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 el ...

by Ignacio Walker Prieto ( PDC) and Lily Pérez San Martín ( RN) as part of the 5th senatorial constituency (Valparaíso-Cordillera).

Climate

References

External links

Municipality of Santa María
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Maria, Chile Populated places in San Felipe de Aconcagua Province Communes of Chile