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Tarapacá Region

Capital: Iquique

Area: 41,799.5 km2

Population: 238,950 inhabitants (2002 Census)

Population density: 5.65 inhab/km2

Principal economic activities: Mining, tourism, fishing and manufacturing.

 

The Tarapacá Region is located in the world's driest desert but has water resources in the altiplano (Andean plateau) where rainfall is heavy in summer. 

The first settlements in this area date back ten thousand years and remains of the Chinchorro and Tiwanaku cultures and the Inca empire, which occupied the area successively before the arrival of the Spaniards, can still be found. Five hundred years ago, the expeditions of the Conquistadores, Diego de Almagro and Pedro de Valdivia, passed through the small town of Tarapacá, beside the old Inca Trail.

The main city, Iquique, is on the coast and its combination of warm waters and a pleasant climate has encouraged investment in tourist infrastructure. Since it has a tax-free zone, the city is also attractive for shopping and entertainment. Different carnivals and festivals take place during the year and the region's coastline, with over 160 kms of interspersed bays and beaches, permits a variety of leisure and sporting activities such as high-sea fishing. 

Inland, in the pampa, there are ghost towns dating back to the region's nitrates boom as well as geoglyphs, petroglyphs and rock paintings from the Tiwanaku culture. In the antiplano and the mountains, Aymara and Atacameña communities preserve ancestral customs, growing quinoa and raising camelids.

The Volcán Isluga National Park nestles under snow-capped peaks and hills of ceremonial significance to Aymara communities and, stretching across broad plains with native vegetation, includes lakes, rivers, wetlands rich in birdlife, geysers and thermal springs.

 

Area

The Tarapacá Region covers 41,799.5 km2, representing 5.57% of the country's total area. 

 

Land formation

The region is formed by the Andes Mountains which are large, high and volcanic and are bordered on the east by the Chilean altiplano; the Intermediate Depression where pampa, including the Tamarugal Pampa, predominates; the Cordillera de la Costa (Coastal Range) which, with its high, steep-sided mountains, limits the impact of the ocean on the climate of the interior; and narrow coastal plains, with a maximum width of 2 kms, where the city of Iquique is located. 

 

Climate

A desert climate predominates. It is divided into a coastal desert climate, characterized by its cloudiness and only small temperature variations within the day, a typical desert climate with very dry air and large variations in temperature within the same day, and a marginal desert climate found at over 3,000 meters above sea level, with lower temperatures and rainfall in summer (the so- called Bolivian winter).  

 

Water resources

The prevailing climate and soil characteristics mean that water supply is scarce. In the Tamarugal Pampa, there are some ravines with water but this is dried up by leakage and evaporation. However, subterranean water supplies the Tamarugo Woods and human settlements in the pampa.

 

Population

According to the 2002 Census, the region had a population of 238,950 inhabitants, representing 1.56 % of the country's total population and a density of 5.65 inhabitants/km2. 

 

Economic sectors

Tourism is boosted by the tax-free zone in Iquique but mining is the region's fastest-growing sector and includes the Doña Inés de Collahuasi mine with an output that reached 325,000 tonnes in 1998. Non-metallic mining is also important, led by salt production.

 

Administrative divisions

mapa

REGIONAL CAPITAL PROVINCES MUNICIPALITIES
Iquique Iquique Iquique
Alto Hospicio
Tamarugal Pozo Almonte
Pica
Huara
Camiña
Colchane

Foreign Direct Investment DL 600 Statistics in the Tarapacá Region (1974 - 2008), (Excel, 43 Kb.)

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