The Baháʼí Faith in Chile begins with references to Chile in Baháʼí literature as early as 1916, with the first Baháʼís visiting as early as 1919. A functioning community was not founded in Chile until 1940 with the beginning of the arrival of coordinated pioneers from the United States finding national Chilean converts and achieved an independent national community in 1963. In 2002 this community was picked for the establishment of the first Baháʼí Temple of South America which the community is still prosecuting. The US government estimated 6,000 Baháʼís in Chile as of 2007 though the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying mostly on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 26,000 Baháʼís in 2005.