Its capital is Valparaíso, which is the site for the National Congress of Chile and an important commercial port.

the majority of Valparaíso's people have some non-Spanish European background, such as: British and Irish, Australians and New Zealanders, North Americans (U.S. or Canadian), Croats and Bosnians, Dutch and Belgians, French, Germans, Greeks, Italians, Portuguese and Scandinavians.

Also, there are more or less assimilated groups of Chilean Jews (mostly Ashkenazi), as well as Christians from the Ottoman Empire, primarily Syro-Lebanese and a large Palestinian community in the town of La Calera.

In racial terms, the majority of Valparaíso's inhabitants are castizos, meaning that their paternal origins are overwhelmingly from white whalers, settlers and traders of various European nationalities, including colonial Spanish settlers, while their maternal origins usually stems from unions between colonial Spanish men and local indigenous women, including those of Mapuche, Inca, Aymara and North American Indian descent (transplanted Cherokees are reported to come in the late 19th century, though it could well be a myth).

Smaller numbers of East Asians, mostly Chinese, Japanese or Korean, minuscule numbers of Afro-Chileans, as well as a component of Polynesians whose ancestors were kidnapped from Easter Island and the Marquesas Islands, further added to the region's Hispanicized melting pot.

The Valparaíso Region is a host of agricultural lands, wine producers, and industrial activity such as copper mining and cement.

Chile's largest oil refinery is located in Concón (on the mouth of the Aconcagua River and about 20 km (12 mi) north of Valparaíso) and there are two important copper ore refineries: the state-owned Ventanas (on the coast and north of Concón) and the private works in Chagres, about 55 mi (89 km) inland.