Quality of life in small Chilean cities

The case of Coelemu and the systematic exclusion from national statistics

Abstract

This article examines the systematic exclusion of small Chilean cities from the main instruments used to measure urban quality of life (the Urban Quality of Life Index [ICVU] and the System of Indicators and Standards for Urban Development [SIEDU]), whose population thresholds exclude 20.7% of the national population. It is argued that this statistical invisibility constitutes a form of spatial injustice that precedes and enables the political marginalization of these territories. Using a sequence mixed design, official secondary data (2024 Census, 2022 CASEN, sectoral records) are systematized and contrasted with 44 semi-structured interviews conducted with residents of Coelemu, Ñuble Region, between 2022 and 2025. The results reveal a structural paradox: high subjective satisfaction with tranquility (88.6%) and strong territorial attachment (79.5%) coexist with severe objective limitations in employment (unemployment rate of 8.5%), basic services (31.4% of households lacking basic services at the communal level), and demographic aging (index of 113.6). This triangulation identifies convergences in material dimensions, divergences in education, and a lack of quantitative correlations in symbolic-affective dimensions such as identity and appreciation of the natural environment. It is concluded that the quality of life in small cities incorporates identity-related dimensions that cannot be captured by exclusively quantitative approaches, and that adapting national instruments or creating specific metrics for territories with populations under 50,000 is a necessary condition for reversing cycles of institutional neglect.