SANTIAGO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chile's population is aging at a faster rate than before, an official said on Friday, suggesting immigration could help counter the trend.

"Today we have a fertility rate of 1.79, which is below the population replacement rate, which stands at 2.1," Ximena Clark, the director of Chile's National Statistics Institute (INE), warned.

"When there is no immigration from countries, that means that in the medium to long term, the population will end up decreasing. We are not at that stage yet," she said.

"Immigration can help reverse this trend," she added.

According to the INE's latest report, the percentage of the population aged 0 to 14 years old has dropped from 29.4 percent in 1992 to 20.1 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, the percentage of elderly people, aged 65 and over, has grown from 6.6 percent in 1992 to 11.4 percent in 2017; and those aged 15 to 64 now represent 68.6 percent of the population, compared to 64 percent in 1992.

Chile has seen a boom in foreign residents in recent years, with the international community estimated to number some 600,000 people.