Description

GEO2_CL identifies the household's municipality within Chile from 1982 to present. Municipalities/Communes are the second level administrative units of the country, after provinces. GEO2_CL is spatially harmonized to account for political boundary changes across census years. Some detail is lost in harmonization; see the comparability discussion. A GIS map (in shapefile format), corresponding to GEO2_CL can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.

The full set of geography variables for Chile can be found in the IPUMS International Geography variables list. For cross-national geographic analysis on the first and second major administrative level refer to GEOLEV1, and GEOLEV2. More information on IPUMS-International geography can be found here.

Comparability — General

Chile reorganized administrative divisions between 1970 and 1982, GEO2ALT_CL reflects departments in Chile in 1960 and 1970.

Where boundaries changed over time, units were harmonized to create units with boundaries that remain stable over time. Where officially-defined municipalities/communes have populations less than 20,000, they have been regionalized (combined) with neighboring municipalities.

Boundary changes for GEO2_CL are too numerous to list, but users should be aware that there were changes over time.

Universe

Availability

• Chile: 1982, 1992, 2002, 2017