The aim of the study was to characterize Chilean consumers of commercial fluid milk and determine if sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge and/or perception on nutritive components of milk affect its consumption. A face-to-face interview was conducted through a stratified random sampling with 501 persons in the Province of Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile. The interviews were conducted at the entrance of major supermarkets from 5 different municipalities of the Province of Santiago. Interviews were performed from 10.00 h a.m to 13.00 h p.m. and from 15.00 hours to 17.30 h p.m. every day. Sixteen percent of respondents declared not consuming milk due to animal cruelty followed by self-reported lactose intolerance among other reasons. The most consumed types of milk were whole (25 %), semi-skimmed (24 %) and skimmed (25 %) followed by other types. The majority of respondents that consume milk declared to do it at home (93 %; n = 393), while the rest (7 %; n = 30) declared to consume milk elsewhere (at a coffee shop, restaurant, as a guest, etc.). Participants declared to make their purchase by prioritizing price followed by brand, type of milk, expiration date, nutritional information, packaging, and milk origin. Respondents (86 %) declared to know some nutritional benefits from drinking milk: 47.6 % said that milk was important due to its mineral supply, followed by supply of vitamins (17 %), proteins (17.1 %), fat (13.5 %), sugars (4.5 %) and other components (0.4 %). Most of the answers were associated in some degree with sociodemographic factors. Overall, women declared to consume more skimmed milk whereas, males declared to consume in first place whole milk. Respondents between 18-35 years old declared to consume skimmed and whole milks, while respondents with more than 55 years declared to consume fortified milk followed by semi-skimmed. Consumption of skimmed milk was higher in the high-income socioeconomic class whereas the low-income socioeconomic class resulted in higher consumption of whole milk.