Chile records 59.3 percent Catholic affiliation in the 2021 census conducted by the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, marking a sustained decline from 73 percent in 2002 and 66.7 percent in 2012. The Evangelical Protestant population stands at 16.9 percent in the same census, with growth concentrated in Pentecostal denominations that arrived between 1909 and 1930 through Methodist missionary activity. Those declaring no religious affiliation represent 37.0 percent in 2021, a category combining atheists, agnostics, and individuals rejecting institutional religion while potentially maintaining private spiritual practices. The Latter-day Saints claim approximately 590,000 members across Chile as of 2022, representing roughly 3 percent of the population, with significant concentrations in Santiago and the Central Valley. Jehovah's Witnesses count 180,000 baptized members according to their 2023 yearbook. Orthodox Christianity maintains three parishes in Santiago serving approximately 5,000 adherents, primarily descendants of Palestinian and Greek immigrants who arrived between 1885 and 1950. The Jewish community numbers approximately 18,000 concentrated in Santiago neighborhoods La Reina, Ñuñoa, and Vitacura, maintaining three synagogues and educational institutions descended from migrations between 1914 and 1950. Muslim adherents reach approximately 5,000, with the As-Salam Mosque in Santiago serving a community primarily descended from Palestinian Christian families who converted or intermarried beginning in the 1920s.
The Catholic Church operated as the established state religion until the Constitution of 1925 separated church and state under President Arturo Alessandri. Article 19 of the current 1980 Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and worship, with legal personhood for religious organizations obtained through registration with the Ministry of Justice. The Catholic Church maintains institutional influence through the Chilean Episcopal Conference, comprising 27 dioceses and five archdioceses including the Archdiocese of Santiago established in 1840. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati served as Archbishop of Santiago from 2010 to 2019, succeeded by Celestino Aós after investigations into sexual abuse cases revealed institutional concealment spanning 1960 to 2018. The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago enrolls 32,000 students as of 2023, maintaining religious affiliation while operating under secular academic standards following the University Reform of 1967. The Sanctuary of Santa Teresa de los Andes in Arica receives approximately 200,000 pilgrims annually to honor Teresa de los Andes, canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1993 as the first Chilean saint, a Carmelite nun who died in 1920 at age 19.
La Tirana shrine in the Atacama Desert attracts 250,000 pilgrims each July 16 for the Fiesta de La Tirana honoring the Virgen del Carmen, patron saint of Chile declared by Bernardo O'Higgins in 1818 following the Battle of Maipú. The celebration combines Catholic liturgy with Andean dance brotherhoods performing diabladas originally linked to pre-Columbian mining rituals adapted after Spanish colonization beginning in 1540. The town of La Tirana maintains a permanent population of 800 expanding to temporary capacity of 40,000 during the festival week, with infrastructure including water tankers and medical stations established by the Chilean Army. The Virgen del Carmen is also celebrated in military contexts, with the Chilean Navy conducting annual ceremonies at Iquique commemorating the Battle of Iquique on May 21, 1879, where Arturo Prat died commanding the Esmeralda against the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar.
The sixteen Churches of Chiloé inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 2000 represent wooden architecture built by Jesuit missionaries beginning in 1608 and reconstructed by Franciscans after the Jesuit expulsion in 1767. These structures in locations including Achao, Castro, and Dalcahue employ tejuela shingles of alerce wood and vault designs executed without nails, adapting European baroque models to Chiloé's rainfall of 2,500 millimeters annually. The Church of San Francisco in Castro, rebuilt in 1906 following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake that measured 9.5 magnitude, stands 52 meters tall in painted corrugated iron over wooden frame. Sunday Mass attendance patterns in Chiloé exceed the national average, with 38 percent weekly attendance recorded in 2019 surveys compared to 23 percent nationally, reflecting the archipelago's geographic isolation from Santiago's secular trends.
Evangelical Protestant growth accelerated after the 1960 earthquake, with Pentecostal denominations offering immediate disaster relief and communal support networks in Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Osorno where Catholic institutional response proved slower. The Methodist Pentecostal Church founded in 1909 by Willis Hoover claims 450,000 adherents as of 2022, conducting services emphasizing glossolalia and physical healing testimonies in storefront iglesias across Santiago poblaciones including La Pintana and San Bernardo. The Evangelical Cathedral Jotabeche in Santiago seats 15,000 and serves as headquarters for the Jotabeche Methodist Pentecostal Church, founded in 1928 as a split from Hoover's congregation. Evangelical political influence manifested through the Party of God founded in 2015, which merged into the Christian Social Front in 2018, supporting conservative positions on abortion and same-sex marriage during the constitutional convention of 2021-2022.
The Cathedral Metropolitana of Santiago on the Plaza de Armas occupies a site where churches have stood since 1561, with the current structure designed by Joaquín Toesca and completed in 1775, renovated after the 1985 earthquake that measured 7.8 magnitude. The cathedral houses remains of Diego de Almagro and colonial-era bishops, with daily Masses at 12:00 and 19:00 attracting primarily retirees and women over age 50 based on observational attendance studies conducted in 2018. The attached Museo de Arte Sagrado displays colonial-era liturgical silver looted during the Chilean Civil War of 1891 and subsequently recovered. San Cristóbal Hill rising 880 meters in Santiago supports a 14-meter Virgin Mary statue inaugurated in 1908, accessed by funicular operating since 1925, with evening illumination visible across the metropolitan area of 6.2 million residents.
Marriage in Chile follows civil law requiring registration at the Registro Civil, with religious ceremonies holding no legal standing unless preceded by civil registration established under the 1884 Civil Marriage Law. The divorce law enacted in 2004 under President Ricardo Lagos ended Chile's status as the final Western Hemisphere nation prohibiting divorce, opposed by the Catholic Church through episcopal statements and congressional lobbying. Cohabitation without marriage increased from 8.9 percent of couples in 1992 to 25.4 percent in 2017 according to census data, concentrated among adults under 35 in urban areas. The average marriage age reached 32.7 for men and 30.4 for women in 2020 data from the Registro Civil, up from 28.1 and 25.3 respectively in 1990.
Religious education in Chilean public schools operates under the 1999 decree allowing parents to opt students into Catholic, Evangelical, or secular ethics classes, with instruction provided twice weekly for 90 minutes. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled in 2018 that schools cannot compel religious class attendance, removing previous requirements that opt-outs be justified in writing. Private Catholic schools educate approximately 380,000 students as of 2022, receiving state subsidies under the voucher system established during Pinochet's government in 1981, with additional fees permitted since 2016 legislation. The Colegio Sagrados Corazones in Santiago and Instituto Nacional in Santiago represent elite Catholic education, though the latter became secular after 1925 despite maintaining religious namesakes.