BAGUIO CITY– The population of the Cordillera Administrative Region now stands at 1.7 million, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.
PSA-Cordillera officials reported the results of the 2015 Census of Population (POPCEN 2015) during the Regional Data Dissemination forum as part of the 27th National Statistics Month celebration here, Thursday.
Benguet Provincial Statistics Officer Imelda Buyuccan informed that based on the 2015 Census of Population, the Cordillera region has a population of 1,722,006 as of August 1, 2015.
The 2015 population of the region is higher by 105,139 compared with the 1.62M in 2010, and by 356,594 compared with the population of 1.37M in 2000.
“The population of CAR increased by 1.21 percent annually, on average, during the period 2010 to 2015. By comparison, the rate at which the region’s population grew during the period 2000 to 2010 was higher at 1.70 percent,” Buyuccan said.
Among the six provinces comprising CAR, Benguet excluding Baguio City had the biggest population in 2015 with 446,000 followed by Abra with 241,000; Kalinga, 213,000; Ifugao, 203,000; and Mountain Province, 155,000. Apayao had the smallest population with 119,000. Baguio City, the only highly urbanized city in the region, posted a population of 345,000.
The combined population of CAR accounted for about 1.7% of the country’s population in 2015.
Benguet excluding Baguio City was the fastest growing province in the region with an average annual population growth rate (PGR) of 1.91 percent during the period 2010 to 2015. It was followed by Ifugao with 1.14%; Apayao, 1.08%; Kalinga, 1.02%; and Abra, 0.52%. Mountain Province posted the lowest PGR of 0.05%.
The ten least populous municipalities in the region are all located in the province of Abra with Daguioman the having least population with 2,088 persons.
Of the 1,176 barangays in CAR, the largest in terms of population size is Irisan in Baguio City with 30,507 persons. It was followed by Pico in La Trinidad, Benguet (23,282) and Bulanao in the City of Tabuk, Kalinga (19,636). The rest of the top ten most populous barangays in the region are all located in the province of Benguet.
In the same report, PSA Division Chief Aldrin Bahit said that the population of the Philippines as of August 1, 2015 was 100,981,437 (POPCEN 2015).
The 2015 population is higher by 8.64M compared with the 92.34M in 2010. The Philippine population increased by 1.72% annually, on average, during the period 2010 to 2015.
The POPCEN 2015 was undertaken by the PSA in August 2015 pursuant to Republic Act No. 10625, also known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 and Executive Order No. 352 – Designation of Statistical Activities That Will Generate Critical Data for Decision-Making of the Government and the Private Sector, which stipulates the conduct of a mid-decade census primarily to update the population count in all barangays nationwide.
The PSA said that the successful completion of the census-taking was made possible with the support of the local and national officials, government agencies, local government units, media, private agencies, and non-government organizations. **JDP/RMC, Salva Panganiban & Vanessa Manglallan-PIA CAR/ ISU Interns
