Distillers Chile
A one-page guide to Chile for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Santiago
- Official languages
- Spanish
- Currency
- Chilean peso (CLP)
- Time zone
- UTC-4 (UTC-3 summer); varies by region
- Area
- 756,556 km²
People
- Population
- 19.9 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 0.5% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 89.2%
- Aged under 15
- 16.5%
- Aged 65 and over
- 14.6%
- Life expectancy
- 81.4 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$357.4 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$17,995 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 2.45925474781374% (2025)
- Inflation
- 4.21294031801535% (2025)
Climate
Atacama Desert (driest in the world) in the north, Mediterranean climate in the centre (where most vineyards and Santiago are), oceanic and glacial climate in the south.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 18
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 7.0 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- What people drink
- Beer 48%, wine 27%, spirits 25% (2022)
- Traditional drinks
- Pisco (Atacama and Coquimbo denomination regions, set 1931), Chilean wine, Beer
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: Chile (basics, climate, ports); Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; World Bank Open Data (population, GDP, growth, inflation, area); WHO Global Health Observatory: total alcohol per capita; UN Comtrade (HS 2208 trade); Wikipedia: Beer in Chile; Wikipedia: Pisco; Nubox - impuesto a bebidas alcoholicas en Chile (2021). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.