San Bernardo is a Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an city and commune. It is the capital of the Maipo Province

Maipo Province

Maipo Province is one of six provinces in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of central Chile. Its capital is San Bernardo.-Administration:As a province, Maipo is a second-level administrative division of Chile, governed by a provincial governor who is appointed by the president.-Communes:The...

 in the Santiago Metropolitan Region

Santiago Metropolitan Region

Santiago Metropolitan Region or simply Metropolitan Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is the country's only landlocked administrative region and contains the nation's capital, Santiago...

. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardo

Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardo

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardo is a diocese located in the city of San Bernardo in the Ecclesiastical province of Santiago de Chile in Chile.-History:...

.

Demographics

According to the 2002 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 of the National Statistics Institute

National Statistics Institute (Chile)

The National Statistics Institute of Chile is a state-run organization of the Government of Chile, created in the second half of the 19th century and tasked with performing a general census of population and housing, then collecting, producing and publishing official demographic statistics of...

, San Bernardo spans an area of 155.1 sqkm and has 246,762 inhabitants (121,535 men and 125,227 women). Of these, 241,138 (97.7%) lived in urban area

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s and 5,624 (2.3%) in rural areas. The population grew by 29.3% (55,905 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

Stats

• Population: 286,228 (2006 proejction)
• Average annual household income: US$16,035 (PPP
  Purchasing power parity
  In economics, purchasing power parity is a condition between countries where an amount of money has the same purchasing power in different countries. The prices of the goods between the countries would only reflect the exchange rates...
  
  , 2009)
• Population below poverty line: 20.9% (2006)

Administration

As a commune, San Bernardo is a third-level administrative division of Chile administered by a municipal council

Municipal council

A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

, headed by an alcalde

Alcalde

Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

 who is directly elected every four years. The 2008-2012 alcalde is Nora Cuevas Contreras. The council has the following members:

• Francisco Javier Pereira Riquelme (UDI)
• Leonardo Soto Ferrada (PS
  Socialist Party of Chile
  The Socialist Party of Chile is a political party, that is part of the center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy coalition. Its historical leader was the late President of Chile Salvador Allende Gossens, who was deposed by General Pinochet in 1973...
  
  )
• José Soto Sandoval (PDC
  Christian Democratic Party
  Christian democratic parties are those political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and...
  
  )
• Sebastián Orrego Cisternas (RN
  National Renewal (Chile)
  National Renewal , is a liberal conservative political party belonging to the Chilean right-wing political coalition Coalition for Change in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union and the Chile First movement...
  
  )
• Sergio Villavicencio Pastén (PH
  Humanist Party (Chile)
  The Humanist Party is a progressive left-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1984.In December 1990, Laura Rodríguez became the first elected representative of any Humanist Party in the world after winning a seat as part of the Concertación coalition, after Augusto Pinochet handed over...
  
  )
• Luis Navarro Ormeño (PRSD
  Social Democrat Radical Party
  The Social Democratic Radical Party is a social democratic party in Chile.The party is a member of Socialist International....
  
  )
• Sonia González Romo (PPD
  Party for Democracy
  The Party for Democracy is a political party in Chile; it is social democratic in its political orientation. It was founded in December 1987 by Ricardo Lagos, who aimed at forming a legal social democratic party . The party continued to function after the defeat of Pinochet...
  
  )
• Ricardo Rencoret Klein (UDI)

The regional intendant

Intendant

The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

, appointed by the president

President of Chile

The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...

, is Fernando Echeverría.

Within the electoral divisions of Chile, San Bernardo is represented in the Chamber of Deputies

Chamber of Deputies of Chile

The Chamber of Deputies of the Republic of Chile is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution....

 by Ramón Farías (PPD) and Mr. José Antonio Kast (UDI) as part of the 30th electoral district, (together with Buin

Buin, Chile

Buin is a city and commune of Chile, in the Maipo Province, Metropolitan Region of Santiago, which forms part of Greater Santiago. It is a city conformed by the towns of Maipo, Viluco, Linderos, Valdivia de Paine, Alto Jahuel, Los Guindos and El Recurso...

, Paine

Paine, Chile

Paine is a Chilean city, forming part of Greater Santiago, and a commune in the Maipo Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region.-Demographics:According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Paine spans an area of and has 50,028 inhabitants . Of these, 31,622 lived in urban areas...

 and Calera de Tango

Calera de Tango

Calera de Tango is a Chilean commune in the Maipo Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region.-Demographics:According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Calera de Tango spans an area of and has 18,235 inhabitants . Of these, 9,932 lived in urban areas and 8,303 in rural areas...

). The commune is represented in the Senate

Senate of Chile

The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.-Composition:...

by Guido Girardi Lavín (PPD) and Jovino Novoa Vásquez (UDI) as part of the 7th senatorial constituency (Santiago-West).

External links

Municipality of San Bernardo