Education
Schooling attained, literacy, school attendance and what each cohort of school leavers goes on to study.
Average years of schooling
346/346 communesWhich programmes are growing and which are falling
2007–2026First-year enrolment, one row per person who started that year. It is read over SIES's generic programme — the register's own grouping of its programme names — rather than over the name each institution registered, because names move far more than enrolment does. The change compares the average of the first three years with that of the last three, and the whole series is drawn beside it: a steady twenty-year slide and a cliff in one year give the same percentage.
University
Undergraduate programmes at universities. Only programmes averaging at least 500 entrants in both windows: a percentage change on a small base is noise with a large number on it. The series cover between 92% and 96% of the track's entrants.
Technical and professional
Undergraduate programmes at technical training centres (CFT) and professional institutes (IP), counted together rather than apart. In 2026 the border between the two moved — CFTs lose 25,214 entrants and IPs gain 32,452, programme by programme: Técnico en Mecánica Automotriz goes from 3,928 to 282 at the CFTs while going from 2,055 to 6,098 at the IPs — and that is CFT INACAP being absorbed by IP INACAP, not people changing what they study. Each type's tab in the higher-education profile reads them apart, with that absorption declared. Read apart, the two lists would say motor mechanics collapsed. Added together, the transfer cancels. Only programmes averaging at least 500 entrants in both windows: a percentage change on a small base is noise with a large number on it. The series cover between 88% and 98% of the track's entrants.
Postgraduate
Master's and doctoral entrants. At this level the register classifies into twenty categories that are broad fields rather than programmes, so “Magíster en Derecho” and “Técnico en Logística” are not figures of the same grain. Only programmes averaging at least 300 entrants in both windows: a percentage change on a small base is noise with a large number on it. The series cover between 93% and 96% of the track's entrants.
There is no list of falls because there are none: every postgraduate category large enough to rank grew over the twenty years. Padding it with the slowest risers would invent a direction the source does not show.
Colour says which way, not whether it is good news. A programme losing entrants and one gaining them are drawn with equal weight, and which of the two is welcome is not PuroChile's call. The national list is on the trends page. Universities, institutes and CFTs one by one, and what opened and closed, are in the higher-education profile.
Every region
| Region | Average years of schooling | Women's schooling as share of men's | Literacy rate | Reached higher education | Reached secondary education | Primary education only | Never attended school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arica y Parinacota | 10.4 yrs | 100.0% | 98.7% | 29.8% | 40.1% | 21.6% | 2.95% |
| Tarapacá | 10.1 yrs | 99.0% | 98.9% | 26.1% | 42.0% | 22.7% | 3.17% |
| Antofagasta | 10.5 yrs | 98.4% | 99.0% | 29.8% | 41.0% | 21.0% | 3.20% |
| Atacama | 9.9 yrs | 100.3% | 98.2% | 25.5% | 40.9% | 25.0% | 3.21% |
| Coquimbo | 10.1 yrs | 100.5% | 97.9% | 27.8% | 38.3% | 25.9% | 3.02% |
| Valparaíso | 10.6 yrs | 99.6% | 98.3% | 33.0% | 37.9% | 21.7% | 2.56% |
| Metropolitana | 10.9 yrs | 98.7% | 98.5% | 35.9% | 35.7% | 20.6% | 2.75% |
| O'Higgins | 9.8 yrs | 101.6% | 96.7% | 25.2% | 37.4% | 28.8% | 3.52% |
| Maule | 9.5 yrs | 103.1% | 96.0% | 23.5% | 36.4% | 31.1% | 3.69% |
| Ñuble | 9.6 yrs | 102.6% | 95.7% | 24.1% | 36.2% | 31.2% | 3.65% |
| Biobío | 10.3 yrs | 99.6% | 97.1% | 30.9% | 35.4% | 25.5% | 3.26% |
| Araucanía | 9.7 yrs | 101.5% | 96.4% | 24.7% | 36.7% | 29.9% | 3.60% |
| Los Ríos | 9.9 yrs | 100.8% | 96.9% | 26.4% | 36.7% | 28.8% | 3.16% |
| Los Lagos | 9.8 yrs | 100.5% | 97.0% | 25.3% | 35.9% | 30.6% | 3.10% |
| Aysén | 9.9 yrs | 102.2% | 97.2% | 28.3% | 33.8% | 29.1% | 2.99% |
| Magallanes | 10.7 yrs | 100.0% | 98.7% | 32.9% | 37.9% | 22.2% | 1.74% |
| Chile | 10.4 yrs | 99.8% | 97.8% | 31.1% | 36.7% | 24.1% | 3.01% |
Indicators
21Every indicator of this subject, with the field it is measured over: the lowest territory and the highest, the middle half of them as a band, the median as a notch and Chile as a dot. A national figure on its own cannot say whether the country agrees with itself, and in a site about places that is the part worth reading.
| Indicator | Chile | Across the country | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Average years of schooling | 10.4 yrs | General Lagos5.8 yrs | Antártica15.0 yrs | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Women's schooling as share of men's · 100 means parity; below 100, women in the territory completed fewer years than men. The census does not publish educational attainment split by sex at comuna level, so the higher-education gap is not in PuroChile: only the gap in years of schooling. | 99.8% | General Lagos74.4% | Río Verde121.5% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Literacy rate | 97.8% | Alto Biobío86.4% | Antártica100.0% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Reached higher education | 31.1% | General Lagos4.6% | Antártica90.0% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Reached secondary education | 36.7% | Antártica10.0% | María Elena47.9% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Primary education only | 24.1% | Antártica0.0% | General Lagos49.5% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Never attended school | 3.01% | Antártica0.00% | General Lagos15.45% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Average years of schooling, men · The census publishes this average over the population aged 18 or over and crosses age with sex only in five-year bands, so it is weighted by the population aged 15 or over of each sex. Rebuilt from the 346 comunas it gives 12.1 years, the same figure INE published for the country. | 12.1 yrs | General Lagos7.8 yrs | Vitacura16.7 yrs | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Average years of schooling, women · Same weight and same caveat as the figure for men. | 12.1 yrs | General Lagos5.8 yrs | Providencia15.9 yrs | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE | |
Illiteracy · People aged 15 or over who say they cannot read or write. | 2.18% | Providencia0.21% | 345 of 346 communes | Alto Biobío13.56% | Censo de Población y Vivienda 2024, INE (tabla comunal ampliada) |
School attendance, ages 6-17 | 98.6% | El Quisco88.7% | 333 of 346 communes | Camarones100.0% | Encuesta Casen 2024, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia |
Households lacking schooling | 15.1% | Vitacura0.6% | 335 of 346 communes | Colchane68.5% | Encuesta Casen 2024, Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia |
Continues to higher education · Of young secondary-school graduates, those enrolled in first-year undergraduate studies the following March. By the comuna of the school where they finished secondary school, which is the approximation to origin that Mineduc publishes. | 55.6% | Pencahue8.7% | 331 of 346 communes | Vitacura80.6% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Secondary school leavers · Secondary education for children and young people, by the comuna of the school where they took it. Adults are counted apart. | 217,565 | Camarones4 | 331 of 346 communes | Santiago6,937 | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Leaves from technical-vocational school · Commercial, industrial, technical, agricultural and maritime tracks. | 33.9% | Cabo de Hornos0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Camarones100.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Leaves from a rural school · By the school's own rural classification. A zero here is a measured zero —the comuna had a graduating class and none of its graduates came from a rural school—, not a cell without data: two in three comunas are in that situation. There is no continuation rate split by rural and urban because the median comuna's rural divisor does not reach thirty graduates. | 3.1% | Natales0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Camarones100.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Of those continuing, enters a university · The three destinations split the same total and add up to 100. | 67.2% | Rauco15.8% | 331 of 346 communes | Camarones100.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Of those continuing, enters a professional institute · The three destinations split the same total and add up to 100. | 19.7% | Río Ibáñez0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Placilla60.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Of those continuing, enters a technical training centre · The three destinations split the same total and add up to 100. | 13.1% | Cabo de Hornos0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Longaví69.8% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Of those continuing, studies outside their region · Compares the region of the school they graduated from with the region of the campus where they enrol. A campus is not necessarily where the student lives. | 13.0% | Río Ibáñez0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Guaitecas100.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Of those continuing, women · The graduates module does not publish sex, so there is no continuation rate by sex: only the make-up of those who do continue. | 49.7% | Placilla0.0% | 331 of 346 communes | Pencahue100.0% | Egresados de enseñanza media y Matrícula en educación superior, Ministerio de Educación (SIES) |
Chile is not the median of its territories and the two marks rarely meet: the country is a sum weighted by people and the median commune is one commune. Where the dot sits well to the right of the notch, most communes are below a figure a few large ones carry.