The method
How this data is built, and who paid for it
A count that does not say how it was made is an estimate with the appearance of a census. Here is the full procedure, including the share that could not be verified.
How this data is built
The registry does not come from a survey or from voluntary sign-ups. It is built by combining freedom of information requests to public institutions and municipalities with direct fieldwork, and that is why it reaches ventures no formal register captures.
How records are matched, classified, and what share is verified
An artificial intelligence process runs over that raw material, standardising and cleaning every record: region, municipality, people, gender, formalisation and sector. Without that layer the same municipality appears spelled five different ways and the count becomes useless.
Sector is classified twice on purpose: under CIIU, the official classification of the Chilean tax authority, and under the Foundation's own twenty categories, which are legible and culturally relevant. The first allows cross-referencing with state data; the second allows an artisan to recognise her own trade on the list.
22.5% of the sector data is verified against the tax registry, and 3.4% of ventures have formally registered activity. Both figures are low, and stating them is part of the method: a registry that does not declare how much it could verify is not a registry, it is an estimate that looks like a census.
Who funded each registry
The first registry, in 2022, was carried out under the project «U.S. Models Promote Indigenous-Owned Business Development», with support from the Embassy of the United States in Chile. The second, in 2025, was funded by Fundación Empresas Indígenas with its own resources.
Why the distinction is not a technicality
The distinction is not an administrative technicality. The first count of Chile's Indigenous economy was paid for by a foreign embassy; the second was paid for by the Indigenous institution itself, and it counted more than six times as much. It is the same economic autonomy this ecosystem advances, applied to the body that runs it.