Crimes by Region in Chile — CEAD Comparative Data

Chile is organised into 16 administrative regions, each with distinct geographic, economic, and demographic characteristics. This page presents reported crime incidence at the regional level based on data from the CEAD (Centro de Estudios y Análisis del Delito — Chile's official crime-statistics body) for 2025, with guidance on how to interpret differences between regions.

Why regional context matters

The region where someone lives or travels shapes how commune-level data should be interpreted. A commune with a rate of 800 per 100,000 may be below the regional average in a mining-intensive northern region, but well above average in an agricultural southern region. The regional reference provides context that the national average alone cannot capture.

At the same time, differences between communes within the same region often exceed differences between regions. A region with moderate average rates may include communes both far above and far below that average. For this reason, commune-level data is always the most informative level of analysis.

Regional patterns in CEAD data

Based on CEAD data for 2025, some general patterns are observed across Chile's regions (subject to change with each annual CEAD update):

• Northern regions: Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Atacama combine mining economies with high population turnover. This dynamic contributes to reported per-capita rates that frequently exceed the national average. Port and industrial communes in these regions account for most of the regional incidence.
• Metropolitan Region: concentrates the highest absolute volume of incidents in the country. Its regional per-capita rate is comparable to other urban regions, but internal variation is large: residential communes in the east versus central communes with high commercial and transit activity.
• Valparaíso: second region by volume. Greater Valparaíso (Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemana, and Concón) concentrates most of the regional incidence. The rest of the region — Petorca, Los Andes, San Antonio — shows different profiles.
• Southern regions: Aysén and Magallanes have the smallest absolute populations in the country. Their per-capita rates are statistically more volatile; a small number of incidents can produce significant year-on-year variation.

These are indicative patterns derived from reading CEAD data. Any definitive analysis should be done directly against the data for the year of interest.

CEAD regional rate versus commune mean

CEAD publishes a regional rate as the sum of incidents across all communes in the region divided by the total regional population. This figure is an aggregated total, not an average of commune rates. In regions with a few large communes, the regional total can be dominated by those communes and may not reflect the experience of medium and small communes.

On this site, when we display an average for comparison, we calculate the simple arithmetic mean of commune rates for communes with sufficient population — not the CEAD sum. This distinction is documented on the methodology page.

How to explore data by region

For each of Chile's 16 regions, this site provides:

• Region page: shows all communes in the region ranked by rate, with last-year incidence and a three-year CEAD trend. For example: Metropolitan Region, Valparaíso Region, or Biobío Region.
• Choropleth map: the crime map colours all communes by their rate, making regional and sub-regional patterns immediately visible.
• Commune pages: each commune has its own page with the time series from 2005, the breakdown by crime family, and the regional comparison.

Limitations of regional analysis

Interpreting data at the regional level requires keeping several limitations in mind:

• Internal heterogeneity: variation within a region can exceed variation between regions. The regional average masks important differences between the communes that make it up.
• Variable under-reporting: the dark figure (unreported crimes) is not uniform across regions. Communes with lower institutional trust or less access to police stations may have higher under-reporting, meaning their reported rate understates actual incidence more than in other regions.
• Boundary changes and denominators: some regions have changed their boundaries or commune assignments in recent years. Time series for modified regions should be interpreted with caution.

This site does not classify any region as "safe" or "dangerous" in absolute terms. For a full explanation of the methodology, visit the methodology page.