Geography Quiz Arcade

Chile 🇨🇱

Chile is a country in South America with a population of 19,603,733. Its capital is Santiago. The official currency is CLP, and the main languages are Spanish.

Quick facts

  • Capital: Santiago
  • Continent: South America
  • Population: 19,603,733
  • Area: 756,102 km²
  • Density: 25.9 people per km²
  • Currency: CLP
  • Languages: Spanish
  • ISO code: CL

Where Chile sits

Chile 🇨🇱 is one of 12 countries in South America, with its capital at Santiago. It covers 756,102 square kilometres — 37th in the world — and is home to about 19,603,733 people, 65th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru and Venezuela. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Chile compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Chile sits closest to Romania and Kazakhstan. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Zambia and Turkey.

At 25.9 people per square kilometre it is about 2.3 times below the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by area than by population, so it is more spacious than its population alone suggests.

Spanish is an official language in 20 countries here, among them Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Costa Rica, and 15 others. The CLP is used by Chile and no one else.

To see Chile next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Chile

Santiago lies in Chile's Central Valley, between the Andes and the coastal mountains, while the National Congress meets in nearby Valparaíso. For the flag, remember its nickname, 'La Estrella Solitaria': the lone star.

The flag of Chile: white, red and blue

🇨🇱 The flag is two horizontal stripes, white above red, with a blue square holding a white five-pointed star in the top corner by the flagpole. The star is a guide to progress and honour. Blue stands for the sky, white for the snow of the Andes, and red for the blood spilled to win independence.

Region and neighbours

Chile is a country in southwestern South America, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It shares land borders with 3 countries: Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

Three facts about Chile

  1. Chile is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica.
  2. The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the world's driest desert.
  3. Chile's territory includes Easter Island, far out in the Pacific Ocean.

Sources: Wikipedia: Chile, Wikipedia: Flag of Chile, Wikipedia: Santiago, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Chile

Quizzes that include Chile

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Chile those are:

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Read more about Chile

Nearby countries

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Chile flag?

The flag of Chile is two horizontal stripes, white above red, with a blue square holding a white five-pointed star in the top corner by the flagpole. The star is a guide to progress and honour. Blue stands for the sky, white for the snow of the Andes, and red for the blood spilled to win independence.

Which countries border Chile?

Chile shares land borders with Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

How can I remember the capital of Chile?

Santiago lies in Chile's Central Valley, between the Andes and the coastal mountains, while the National Congress meets in nearby Valparaíso. For the flag, remember its nickname, 'La Estrella Solitaria': the lone star.