Estimates of foreigners

Since 2018, the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG), the National Statistics Institute (INE), in collaboration with the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (PDI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREL), the Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (SRCI) and the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), annually provide an estimate of the number of foreigners habitually resident in Chile as of December 31. Estimates comprise national and regional levels and those municipalities with an estimated 10,000 or more foreign residents.

Resident foreigners are defined as those persons born abroad (according to the 2017 Census) or don’t have Chilean citizenship (according to administrative records) and who are habitual residents of the country or declared their intention to reside in the country through an administrative act:

• For the population with a regular migratory situation, all the residence procedures carried out in SERMIG or MINREL are used, for example: applications for residence permits, applications for refuge, among others.
• In the case of the population with an irregular migratory situation, the following are used: enrollment in an official educational establishment in the country, police reports, registration in the biometric registry and the expiration of tourist extensions.