A total of 21,750 homeless people were enumerated in the 2024 Population and Housing Census, a figure that represents 0.12% of the total enumerated population of the country, according to the results provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Of the enumerated homeless people, the vast majority (81.7%) are males, while 18.3% are females. The average age stood at 43 years, which is 4.9 years more than the national average (38.1 years). By age bracket, 88.9% were between 15 and 64 years, 7.7% were 65 years or older, and 3.4% were under the age of 15.

How many are migrants?

The results show that 13.6% of the homeless population, or 2,120 persons, are international immigrants, which contrasts with the 8.8% of the international immigrant population at the national level. Of homeless immigrants, 42.5% said they were born in Venezuela, 21.4% in Colombia, and 8% in Peru.

As with the general homeless population, the majority of homeless immigrants are males. Furthermore, the average age of homeless immigrants is 31.5 years, 2 years younger than the average age of immigrants at the national level.

Disability

Of the homeless population, 29.8% stated that they had difficulty seeing, hearing, walking, climbing stairs, remembering, concentrating, performing selfcare tasks, or communicating in their primary language. This percentage is greater than the proportion of the enumerated population over the age of 5 who stated they have some type of disability (11.1%).

Of homeless males, 28.9% have a disability, while this figure stood at 34.2% for homeless females. The average age of the homeless with a disability is 31.5 years.

Education

The homeless population over age 15 has a lower level of literacy (91.4%) than the general population (97.8%).

Similarly, the average number of years of education of homeless people aged 18 or over is 9 years, which is less than the average for those who are not homeless (12.1 years).

Of the homeless population, 4.5% never attended formal education, which is greater than the proportion of those with no formal education who are not homeless (3%).

Indigenous communities

The percentage of homeless people who consider themselves part of an indigenous community is 17%, and their average age is 46.8 years.

The percentage of homeless males who consider themselves part of an indigenous community is 17.5%, while for homeless females the percentage is 14.7%.

Regions

In accord with its population density, the Metropolitan Region has the greatest number of homeless people (8,458 persons), which is equivalent to 38.9% of the total number of the enumerated homeless population.

However, the regions with the greatest proportion of homeless compared to the total regional enumerated population are in the north of Chile: 0.51% of those enumerated are homeless in Tarapacá (1,894 persons), and 0.48% of the enumerated are homeless in Arica y Parinacota (1,184 persons). Following are the regions of Antofagasta with 0.23% (1,477 persons) and Atacama with 0.19% (578 persons).

For more information in Spanish, see Censo 2024.

Presentation – 2024 Census: Results on homeless people (Spanish only)