Chile Grades Kast at 3.4 Out of 7 After Six Months in Office
CHILE · POLLING
Key Facts
- —The verdict Chileans grade President José Antonio Kast at 3.4 out of 7 for his first six months.
- —The expectation gap 62% say the government has been worse than they expected. In April it was 52%.
- —The approval 34%, with 62% disapproving. That disapproval is the highest of his term.
- —The poll Cadem Plaza Pública 689, fielded on Friday 11 September, 1,000 respondents online.
- —The caveat It is a quota panel, not a probability sample. Cadem publishes no margin of error.
- —The backdrop Activity fell 1.5% in July, the sharpest drop in a little over three years.
A 3.4 out of 7 is the grade a Chilean schoolchild fails with. That is the number Cadem published for the president’s first six months.
Cadem asked Chileans to mark their president out of seven. The average came back at 3.4, and more than half of respondents gave him a three or less.
What the Poll Actually Asked
The wording was direct. Kast had completed six months in office. Respondents were asked what grade they would give, on a scale of one to seven.
The average was 3.4. More importantly, 51% gave a mark between one and three.
In the Chilean school system, four is the pass mark. Cadem’s own headline attributes the grade to the president personally rather than to his government.
The Expectations Question Is the Sharper One
Respondents were asked whether the government had been better, the same, or worse than they expected.
In September, 62% answered worse. Another 27% said the same, and 8% said better.
The comparison with April is what makes this meaningful. In his first month, 52% already said worse. That figure has climbed ten points in five months.
A separate finding runs alongside it. Some 41% expect no positive change at all.
Do Not Confuse the Two Sixty-Twos
Two different 62% figures appear in this survey, and merging them is the easy error.
One is disapproval of the government. The other is the share saying things have gone worse than expected. They are separate questions.
The 34% approval is also not new movement. Cadem had 34% on 2 September, 36% on 6 September and 35% on 9 September.
What is new in this wave is the six-month module: the 3.4 grade and the 62% expectations figure.
How the Poll Was Made
Fieldwork ran for a single day, Friday 11 September. The sample was 1,000 adults across 16 regions and 165 communes.
It was conducted online through Cadem’s own panel. The sample is non-probabilistic, built on quotas by age, zone and socioeconomic group.
Results are weighted by sex, age, zone, group and recalled vote in the 2025 runoff. Cadem publishes no margin of error, because a quota panel does not support one.
That is not a reason to dismiss the poll. It is a reason to read movement over several waves rather than a single reading.
The Economic Backdrop
The numbers land in a difficult month for the government’s economic record. The central bank’s monthly activity index fell 1.5% in July against a year earlier.
Diario Financiero called it the sharpest fall in more than three years. Mining did most of the damage, through lower ore grades and weather.
Second-quarter output fell 0.2% against a year earlier, after a revised 0.3% fall in the first quarter.
Whether that amounts to a recession is genuinely disputed, and the central bank has not used the word. We examine that question separately.
What This Does and Does Not Tell You
Six months is early. Chilean presidents serve four years, and approval in the thirties at this stage is not unusual in recent Chilean history.
What the expectations question adds is direction. It measures the gap between what voters were promised and what they think they received.
That gap widening by ten points in five months is the finding worth keeping. It is harder to reverse than a headline approval number.
What Is Not Known
Cadem does not publish regional or socioeconomic breakdowns of the grade in its weekly release. The drivers behind the 3.4 are therefore not visible.
No other pollster has published a comparable six-month grade. Until one does, this is a single house’s reading.
For a foreign resident or investor, the practical point is narrow. Public patience with the security and economic programme is thinner at six months than at one month.
More: Chile news and analysis, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grade did Chileans give Kast?
An average of 3.4 out of 7, with 51% giving a mark of three or lower.
Who conducted the poll?
Cadem, in its weekly Plaza Pública track, study 689, published on 13 September 2026.
What is the approval rating?
34% approve and 62% disapprove. The disapproval figure is the highest recorded in his term.
Is the poll reliable?
It is a weighted online quota panel of 1,000 people. It carries no margin of error, so read the trend rather than one wave.
What does the expectations question show?
62% say the government has been worse than expected, up from 52% in April 2026.
How is the economy doing?
Activity fell 1.5% in July against a year earlier, the sharpest drop in a little over three years.
Sources: Cadem Plaza Pública 689, Banco Central de Chile, La Tercera, T13, Cooperativa, Diario Financiero.
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