Language

The official language is Spanish although English is spoken by many well-educated businesspeople.

Value system

Chile has a collectivist culture in which the extended family is a dominating factor in the individual’s decision-making process. Chileans have a high index of uncertainty avoidance. As a result, Chileans use rules and laws to give structure to their society and worldview. The masculinity index is lower than average for the most of Latin America, resulting in more equality for Chilean women.

Business Climate

Kinship and friendship play a major role in a person’s business associations. Thus, it is essential for a foreigner to become friends with a Chilean if you want to do business. Dress and appearances are important.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is an interactive database that allows users to explore public opinion trends in 55 countries on topics ranging from attitudes towards the U.S. to peoples assessments of their own lives to views about globalization, democratization and extremism and other important issues.

The country ranks as no. 23 (of 180 countries) on Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index.