The Valparaíso Region (, ) is one of
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 16
first order administrative divisions.
[Valparaíso Region, 2006] With the country's second-highest population of 1,790,219 , and fourth-smallest area of , the region is Chile's second most densely populated after the
Santiago Metropolitan Region
Santiago Metropolitan Region () 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. Most commercial and administrative centers are loc ...
to the southeast.
The region also includes Chile's remote islands of the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
, including
Rapa Nui
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
and the
Juan Fernandez Islands.
Its capital is the port city of
Valparaíso
Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...
; other important cities include
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...
,
Quillota,
San Felipe,
Quilpué,
Villa Alemana, and
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
.
Administration
As a region, Valparaíso is a first-level administrative division. Since 2021, the region is governed by the governor, who is elected by popular vote. The current governor is
Rodrigo Mundaca (
Broad Front).
Geography and natural features

The region is on the same latitude as the
Santiago Metropolitan Region
Santiago Metropolitan Region () 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. Most commercial and administrative centers are loc ...
. Its capital is
Valparaíso
Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...
, which is the site for the
National Congress of Chile
The National Congress of Chile () is the legislative branch of the Republic of Chile. According to the current Constitution ( Chilean Constitution of 1980), it is a bicameral organ made up of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. Established by l ...
and an important commercial port. Also in this region is the top resort city of
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...
. Additionally, the Pacific islands of
Easter Island
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
,
Isla Salas y Gómez, the
Juan Fernández Islands
The Juan Fernández Islands () are a sparsely inhabited series of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, reliant on tourism and fishing. Situated off the coast of Chile, they are composed of three main volcanic islands: Robinson Crusoe Island, R ...
and the
Desventuradas Islands fall under the Valparaíso Region's administration.
The Valparaíso Region is part of the restricted range of the
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
Chilean wine palm (''Jubaea chilensis''); in prehistoric times, this
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
Chilean tree had a significantly larger range.
[C. Michael Hogan, 2008]
Demographics
The Valparaíso Region is populated by 1.71 million inhabitants. The population density reached 94.1 inhabitants/km
2. 91.6% of the population lives in urban areas and only 8.4% of the population lives in rural areas.
The most populous municipalities in the region are Valparaíso, with 308,000 inhabitants and
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune on Zona Central, Chile, central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located withi ...
, with 287,000 inhabitants, which together with
Villa Alemana,
Quilpué and
Concón form the
Greater Valparaíso, a continuum of 1.75 million people. There are also
Quillota, with about 201,000 inhabitants and
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
with more than 200,000 inhabitants with estimates at 250,000 to be the region's second-largest city.
Immigration and culture

Valparaíso developed as a trans-oceanic rest stop for fishing ships, sea cruise-liners, and international naval ships. Therefore, a large proportion of residents have a variety of national origins, ethnic groups, and cultures.
The
16th-century colonial population was founded by male settlers from the Spanish regions of
Andalusia
Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
,
Asturia and
León, and the large
Basque contingent has given rise to a substantial
Basque Chilean population. Large numbers came from other countries of Latin America from Mexico to Uruguay, esp. came during colonial rule in the 17th century. And in the late 18th–early 19th centuries came a small wave of
Galician settlers from the Spanish region of
Galicia.
It is thought the majority of Valparaíso's people have some
non-Spanish European background, such as: British and Irish, Australians and New Zealanders, North Americans (U.S. or Canadian), Croats and Bosnians, Dutch and Belgians, French, Germans, Greeks, Italians, Portuguese and Scandinavians. Also, there are more or less
assimilated groups of
Chilean Jews (mostly Ashkenazi), as well as
Christians from the Ottoman Empire
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...
, primarily
Syro-Lebanese and a large
Palestinian community in the town of
La Calera.
In racial terms, the majority of Valparaíso's inhabitants are
castizos, meaning that their paternal origins are overwhelmingly from white whalers, settlers and traders of various European nationalities, including colonial Spanish settlers, while their maternal origins usually stems from unions between
colonial Spanish men and local indigenous women, including those of
Mapuche
The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...
,
Inca
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
,
Aymara and
North American Indian descent (transplanted
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
s are reported to come in the late 19th century, though it could well be a myth). Smaller numbers of
East Asians
East Asian people (also East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% ...
, mostly
Chinese,
Japanese or
Korean, minuscule numbers of
Afro-Chilean
Afro-Chileans or Black Chileans are Chilean people of Black people, Black African descent. They may be descendants of slaves who were brought to Chile via the trans-Atlantic slave trade, or recent migrants from other parts of Latin America, the ...
s, as well as a component of
Polynesians
Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...
whose ancestors were kidnapped from
Easter Island
Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...
and the
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...
, further added to the region's
Hispanicized
Hispanicization () refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Hispanic culture or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-Hispanic becomes Hispanic. Hispanicization is illustrated by spoken ...
melting pot
A melting pot is a Monoculturalism, monocultural metaphor for a wiktionary:heterogeneous, heterogeneous society becoming more wiktionary:homogeneous, homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative bei ...
.
Economics and industry
The Valparaíso Region is a host of agricultural lands, wine producers, and industrial activity such as copper mining and cement. Chile's largest oil refinery is located in
Concón (on the mouth of the
Aconcagua River and about north of Valparaíso) and there are two important copper ore refineries: the state-owned
Ventanas (on the coast and north of Concón) and the private works in
Chagres, about inland.
The region also is a hub for chemicals and gas storage near the port of
Quintero. In the interior valleys, there is a booming export industry, mainly around the avocado (palta), chirimoyas and flowers. The most striking recent development has been the cultivation of hillsides using high-tech drip feed irrigation. This has allowed otherwise dry and unproductive land to bear high yields.
Provinces and communes
References
* C. Michael Hogan (2008
''Chilean Wine Palm: Jubaea chilensis'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg* Valparaíso Region, Chile (2006
Line notes
Citations
External links
Gobierno Regional de Valparaíso Official website
Robinson Crusoe, Moai statues and the Rapa Nui: the stories of Chile's far-off islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valparaiso Region
Regions of Chile