Chileans are basically descendants of Spaniards and Amerindians, with a small but significant influence of European immigrants, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
People of indigenous origin (cultural or genetic) are mainly found in rural areas. Initially in the post-independence era, immigrants represented no more than 2% of the total population, but this percentage has increased considerably to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of German, English, French, Croatian, and Palestinian origin, to name the most representative. Between 2014 and 2017, immigration has shown an upward flow that led to a 232% increase in the number of foreign citizens living in Chile, reaching an estimated 1,251,225 by 2018, mainly from Peru (266,244), Colombia (145,139), Venezuela (134,390), Bolivia (122,773), Haiti (112,414), Argentina (87,926) and Ecuador (39,556).