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Provinces of Chile
Provincias de Chile (Spanish)
Provinces of Chile; Provincias de Chile (Spanish)
Category	Unitary unit
Location	Chile
Number	56
Populations	2,392 (Antártica Chilena) – 4,997,637 (Santiago Province)
Areas	163.6 km2 (63.2 sq mi) (Isla de Pascua) - 67,813.5 km2 (26,182.9 sq mi) (Antofagasta)
Government	Provincial government, National government;
Subdivisions	Communes;

A province is a second-level administrative division in Chile. There are 56 in total. The top-level administrative division in Chile is the region. There are 16 in total.

Each provincial presidential delegation (delegación presidencial provincial) is headed by a provincial presidential delegate (delegado presidencial provincial) appointed by the President. The governor exercises their powers in accordance with instructions from the regional presidential delegate (delegado presidencial regional). The provincial delegate is advised by the Provincial Economic and Social Council (Consejo Económico y Social Provincial or CESPRO). No provincial presidential delegations exist in those provinces where the regional capital is located; its functions were merged with those of the regional presidential delegate.

The country's provinces are further divided into 346 communes which are administered by an alcalde and municipal council.

Until 1976, the 25 provinces were the broadest administrative division in Chile. They were: Aconcagua, Aysén (since 1929), Antofagasta, Arauco, Atacama, Biobío, Cautín, Chiloé, Colchagua, Concepción, Coquimbo, Curicó, Linares, Llanquihue, Magallanes (since 1929), Malleco, Maule, Ñuble, O'Higgins, Osorno (since 1940), Santiago, Talca, Tarapacá, Valdivia, and Valparaíso.

Chile claims part of Antarctica which it includes in the Antártica Chilena province. Generally, only the South American part of that province is recognized as part of Chile.

List of provinces

The following table gives each province, its capital, surface area and 2002 population according to the National Statistics Institute.


INE Region	Natural Region	Region	Province	Capital	No. of Communes	Area^[1]^[2]	2002^[1]^[2] Population
North	Far North Chile	Arica and Parinacota (XV)	Arica	Arica	2	8,726.4	186,488
		Arica and Parinacota (XV)	Parinacota	Putre	2	8,146.9	3,156
		Tarapacá (I)	Iquique	Iquique	2	2,835.3	216,419
		Tarapacá (I)	Tamarugal	Pozo Almonte	5	39,390.5	22,531
		Antofagasta (II)	Antofagasta	Antofagasta	4	67,813.5	318,779
			El Loa	Calama	3	41,999.6	143,689
			Tocopilla	Tocopilla	2	16,236.0	31,516
	Near North Chile	Atacama (III)	Copiapó	Copiapó	3	32,538.5	155,713
			Huasco	Vallenar	4	18,201.5	66,491
			Chañaral	Chañaral	2	24,436.2	32,132
		Coquimbo (IV)	Elqui	La Serena	6	16,895.1	365,371
			Limarí	Ovalle	5	13,553.2	156,158
			Choapa	Illapel	4	10,131.6	81,681
Central	North Central Chile	Valparaíso (V)	Isla de Pascua	Hanga Roa	1	163.6	3,791
			Los Andes	Los Andes	4	3,054,1	91,683
			Marga Marga	Quilpué	4	1,159.0	277,525
			Petorca	La Ligua	6	4,588.9	70,610
			Quillota	Quillota	5	1,113.1	175,917
			San Antonio	San Antonio	6	1,511.6	136,594
			San Felipe de Aconcagua	San Felipe	6	2,659.2	131,911
			Valparaíso	Valparaíso	7	2,146.6	651,821
		O'Higgins (VI)	Cachapoal	Rancagua	17	7,384.2	542,901
			Colchagua	San Fernando	10	5,678.0	196,566
			Cardenal Caro	Pichilemu	6	3,324.8	41,160
		Santiago Metropolitan (XIII)	Santiago	Santiago	32	2,030.3	4,668,473
			Cordillera	Puente Alto	3	5,528.3	522,856
			Maipo	San Bernardo	4	1,120.5	378,444
			Talagante	Talagante	5	582.3	217,449
			Melipilla	Melipilla	5	4,065.7	141,165
			Chacabuco	Colina	3	2,076.1	132,798
	South Central Chile	Maule (VII)	Talca	Talca	10	9,937.8	352,966
			Linares	Linares	8	10,050.2	253,990
			Curicó	Curicó	9	7,280.9	244,053
			Cauquenes	Cauquenes	3	3,027.2	57,088
		Ñuble (XVI)	Diguillín	Bulnes	9	5,229.5	284,239
			Punilla	San Carlos	5	5,202.5	98,479
			Itata	Quirihue	7	2,476.5	55,385
		Biobío (VIII)	Concepción	Concepción	12	3,439.0	912,889
			Biobío	Los Ángeles	14	14,987.9	353,315
			Arauco	Lebu	7	5,463.3	157,255
South	South Chile	Araucanía (IX)	Cautin	Temuco	21	18,409.0	667,920
		Araucanía (IX)	Malleco	Angol	11	13,433.3	201,615
		Los Ríos (XIV)	Valdivia	Valdivia	8	10,197.2	259,243
		Los Ríos (XIV)	El Ranco	La Unión	4	8,232.3	97,153
		Los Lagos (X)	Llanquihue	Puerto Montt	9	14,876.4	321,493
			Osorno	Osorno	7	9,223.7	221,509
			Chiloé	Castro	10	9,181.6	154,766
			Palena	Futaleufú	4	15,301.9	18,971
	Austral Chile	Aysén (XI)	Coyhaique	Coihaique	2	12,942.5	51,103
			Aysén	Puerto Aysén	3	46,588.8	29,631
			General Carrera	Chile Chico	2	11,919.5	6,921
			Capitán Prat	Cochrane	3	37,043.6	3,837
		Magallanes (XII)	Magallanes	Punta Arenas	4	38,400.8	121,675
			Última Esperanza	Puerto Natales	2	55,443.9	19,855
			Tierra del Fuego	Porvenir	3	22,592.7	6,904
			Antártica Chilena	Puerto Williams	2	15,853.7^{[note 1]}	2,392

^ Not including the area of the Antártica commune in Antarctica (1,250,000.0 km²).

References

^ ^a ^b "National Statistics Institute" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Territorial division of Chile" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.