Llanquihue Province is one of four provinces of the Chilean region of Los Lagos (X). Its capital is Puerto Montt. Chile's second largest lake, Lake Llanquihue, is located in the province as well as four volcanoes: Osorno, Calbuco, Puntiagudo and Cerro Tronador. European settlement of Llanquihue began in 1852 when Germans were encouraged to immigrate to southern Chile. A century later in 1945 a new wave of Jewish refugees came from Germany. The region is well known for the beauty of its natural environment as well as for the food and seafood from the ports of Puerto Montt and Calbuco.

Administration

As a province, Llanquihue is a second-level administrative division of Chile, governed by a municipality for each constituent commune (Spanish: comuna). Puerto Montt is the provincial capital. The provincial governor is Francisco Le-Bretón as appointed by the President of Chile.

Communes

Geography and demography

According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the province spans an area of 14876.4 sqkm and had a population of 321,493 inhabitants (162,636 men and 158,857 women), giving it a population density of 21.6 PD/sqkm. Of these, 232,962 (72.5%) lived in urban and 88,531 (27.5%) in rural areas. Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 22.4% (58,931 persons).

Cities