The location of the upper socioeconomic stratum of Santiago’s population in the period 1977–2017: deconcentration or expansion of its traditional habitat?

The appearance of suburbs inhabited by the upper socioeconomic stratum in Santiago suggests a dispersion of this group and a loss of importance for the barrio alto, the area in the east of the capital that is its traditional habitat. However, the barrio alto has continued to grow upward and outward in both demographic and real-estate terms. Migration is decisive in this process. Therefore, this paper conducts a detailed and rigorous investigation of its role in the location and redistribution of the socioeconomic strata in Santiago, using microdata from Chile’s last four official censuses. The conclusion drawn is that the territorial dispersion of the upper socioeconomic stratum has not been reducing the attractiveness of the barrio alto and that, rather than deconcentration, this spread could actually be giving rise to an expansion of the geographical scale of the barrio alto, considering its contiguity with the new suburbs inhabited by this group.