Chile: Country background
Chile lies at the far southeast of South America. The country’s official name is the Republic of Chile, and the capital is Santiago. It is divided into 15 administrative regions.
Demographics
According to the census carried out in Chile in 2002, the country’s population was 15,116,435. Projections made by the national institute for statistics (INE) estimate that in 2010 the population will be 17,094,270, with 49.5% men and 50.5% women. It is estimated that 9% of the population will be over 65 and 22.3% under 15.According to INE data, life expectancy for the five-year period from 2005 to 2010 is 78.45 years (81.53 years for women and 75.49 years for men). Both the mortality rate and the birth rate have gone down over the past decades. In 2005, they were 5.3 and 14.9 per 1000 inhabitants, respectively.
Labour market
According to INE information, the working-age population (over 15) was 6,607,510 in the first trimester of 2009. Of these people, 4,184,280 were men and 2,423,230 were women. The current labour market participation rate is 56%. For men, the figure is 71.5% and for women it is 41.1%.The unemployment rate was 9.2% in the first trimester of 2009. This is a 0.7 percentage point increase from the first trimester of 2008.
Social security schemes and programs by branch