 The province is located at the very center of mainland Chile, and its capital lies 303 km south of Santiago and 50 km south of Talca, the regional capital, in the middle of a rich agricultural and wine-growing area.According to the 2002 census by the National Statistics Institute ("INE"), the province spans an area of and had a population of 270,990 inhabitants (127,063 men and 126,927 women), giving it a population density of .Between the 1992 and 2002 censuses, the population grew by 3.1% (7,699 persons).