ChileDataAPI: Access Chilean Data via APIs and Curated Datasets

library(ChileDataAPI)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
#> 
#> Adjuntando el paquete: 'dplyr'
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
#> 
#>     filter, lag
#> The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
#> 
#>     intersect, setdiff, setequal, union

Introduction

The ChileDataAPI package provides a unified interface to access open data from multiple public RESTful APIs, including the FINDIC API, the REST Countries API, the World Bank API, and Nager.Date. With a focus on Chile, the package enables users to retrieve real-time or historical data such as financial indicators (UF, UTM, Dollar, Euro, Yen, Copper price per pound, Bitcoin, IPSA index), holidays, and international demographic and geopolitical information.

In addition to API-based data retrieval, ChileDataAPI includes a curated collection of datasets that cover diverse aspects of Chilean society and environment, such as human rights violations during the Pinochet regime, electoral data, census samples, health surveys, seismic events, territorial codes, and environmental measurements.

All API-based functions return data as tidy tibble objects, making them ready for immediate use in data pipelines. For example, the financial indicator functions get_chile_dollar(), get_chile_uf(), and get_chile_bitcoin() provide reproducible time series of daily or monthly values, where each row corresponds to a timestamped observation.

By combining high-quality curated datasets with open APIs, ChileDataAPI offers a comprehensive toolkit for research and analysis related to Chile, supporting work in economics, politics, demographics, and environmental studies.

In addition to API-access functions, the package includes a collection of curated datasets related to Chile, covering diverse topics such as:

ChileDataAPI is designed to support research, teaching, and data analysis focused on Chile by integrating public RESTful APIs with high-quality, domain-specific datasets into a single, easy-to-use R package.

Functions for ChileDataAPI

The ChileDataAPI package provides several core functions to access real-time and structured information about Chile from public APIs such as FINDIC, REST Countries, the World Bank API, and Nager.Date. Below is a list of the main functions included in the package:

These functions return real-time data in tidy tibble format and represent time series that are updated daily or monthly depending on the source.
The functions powered by the FINDIC endpoints provide economic time series such as the UF, UTM, Dollar, Euro, Yen, Copper price per pound, Bitcoin, and the IPSA index.

In addition, functions connected to the World Bank API supply structured information on macroeconomic indicators (GDP, CPI, unemployment, energy use, hospital beds), population trends, life expectancy, literacy rates, and other development indicators for Chile.

All outputs are delivered as tidy tibble objects, making them ready for immediate integration into reproducible analytical workflows.

These functions allow users to access high-quality and structured information on Chile, which can be combined with tools like dplyr, tidyr, and ggplot2 to support a wide range of data analysis and visualization tasks. In the following sections, you’ll find examples on how to work with ChileDataAPI in practical scenarios.

Get Observed Copper Price per Pound



chile_copper_price <- head(get_chile_copper_pound(),n=10)

print(chile_copper_price)
#> # A tibble: 10 × 2
#>    fecha      valor
#>    <chr>      <dbl>
#>  1 2025-09-11  4.46
#>  2 2025-09-10  4.46
#>  3 2025-09-09  4.46
#>  4 2025-09-08  4.46
#>  5 2025-09-05  4.49
#>  6 2025-09-04  4.5 
#>  7 2025-09-03  4.44
#>  8 2025-09-02  4.46
#>  9 2025-09-01  4.42
#> 10 2025-08-29  4.38

Get exchange rate of the U.S. Dollar in CLP



chile_dollar_price <- head(get_chile_dollar(),n=10)

print(chile_dollar_price)
#> # A tibble: 10 × 2
#>    fecha      valor
#>    <chr>      <dbl>
#>  1 2025-09-11  963.
#>  2 2025-09-10  966.
#>  3 2025-09-09  967.
#>  4 2025-09-08  965.
#>  5 2025-09-05  971.
#>  6 2025-09-04  969.
#>  7 2025-09-03  974.
#>  8 2025-09-02  968.
#>  9 2025-09-01  965.
#> 10 2025-08-29  967.

Get exchange rate of the Euro in CLP.



chile_euro_price <- head(get_chile_euro(),n=10)

print(chile_euro_price)
#> # A tibble: 10 × 2
#>    fecha      valor
#>    <chr>      <dbl>
#>  1 2025-09-11 1127.
#>  2 2025-09-10 1132.
#>  3 2025-09-09 1135.
#>  4 2025-09-08 1130.
#>  5 2025-09-05 1131.
#>  6 2025-09-04 1131.
#>  7 2025-09-03 1133.
#>  8 2025-09-02 1134.
#>  9 2025-09-01 1129.
#> 10 2025-08-29 1131.

Chile’s GDP (Current US$) from World Bank 2022 - 2017



chile_gdp <- head(get_chile_gdp())

print(chile_gdp)
#> # A tibble: 6 × 5
#>   indicator         country  year         value value_label    
#>   <chr>             <chr>   <int>         <dbl> <chr>          
#> 1 GDP (current US$) Chile    2022 301226575540. 301,226,575,540
#> 2 GDP (current US$) Chile    2021 315325547162. 315,325,547,162
#> 3 GDP (current US$) Chile    2020 254042159309. 254,042,159,309
#> 4 GDP (current US$) Chile    2019 278285058719. 278,285,058,719
#> 5 GDP (current US$) Chile    2018 295857562992. 295,857,562,992
#> 6 GDP (current US$) Chile    2017 276154259981. 276,154,259,981

Chile’s Life Expectancy at Birth from World Bank 2022 - 2017


chile_life_expectancy <- head(get_chile_life_expectancy())

print(chile_life_expectancy)
#> # A tibble: 6 × 4
#>   indicator                               country  year value
#>   <chr>                                   <chr>   <int> <dbl>
#> 1 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2022  79.2
#> 2 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2021  78.9
#> 3 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2020  79.3
#> 4 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2019  80.3
#> 5 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2018  80.6
#> 6 Life expectancy at birth, total (years) Chile    2017  80.6

Systolic Blood Pressure by Age and Gender


# Clean data: remove missing values from key variables
health_clean <- chile_health_survey_df %>%
  filter(!is.na(age), !is.na(pas), !is.na(male))

# Create gender variable
health_clean <- health_clean %>%
  mutate(gender = ifelse(male == 1, "Male", "Female"))

# Plot: Systolic Blood Pressure vs Age by Gender
ggplot(health_clean, aes(x = age, y = pas, color = gender)) +
  geom_point(alpha = 0.4) +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = FALSE) +
  labs(
    title = "Systolic Blood Pressure (PAS) by Age and Gender",
    x = "Age (years)",
    y = "Systolic Blood Pressure (mm Hg)",
    color = "Gender"
  ) +
  theme_minimal()

Dataset Suffixes

Each dataset in ChileDataAPI is labeled with a suffix to indicate its structure and type:

Datasets Included in ChileDataAPI

In addition to API access functions, ChileDataAPI provides several curated datasets offering valuable insights into Chile’s recent history, population health, territorial divisions, electoral processes, and seismic activity. Here are some featured examples:

Conclusion

The ChileDataAPI package provides a robust set of tools to access open data about Chile through RESTful APIs and curated datasets. It includes functions to retrieve real-time financial indicators—such as the value of the dollar, euro, yen, copper, UF, UTM, and Bitcoin—via the FINDIC API, as well as international country information through the REST Countries API.

In addition, the package integrates with the World Bank API to deliver structured macroeconomic and demographic indicators, including GDP, CPI, unemployment, energy use, hospital beds, population, life expectancy, and literacy rates, enabling comprehensive socio-economic analysis.
Through the Nager.Date API, users can access official Chilean public holidays, which facilitates temporal alignment of datasets with policy, economic, and cultural events.

Beyond APIs, the package also offers curated datasets covering Chile’s recent history and socio-political context, including the 2017 census sample, the 2021 presidential election, public health survey data, territorial codes, seismic events, and records of human rights violations during the Pinochet regime.

By combining real-time API calls with high-quality curated datasets, ChileDataAPI enables reproducible research and in-depth analysis of Chile’s economic, demographic, environmental, and political landscape.