BAGUIO CITY – The population of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) increased to 1,722,006 or an increase of 105,139 compared to the 1,615,867 population of the region in 2010 as per the results of the 2015 population census conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA-CAR stated that among the Cordillera provinces, Benguet had the biggest population with 466,224 followed by Baguio City with 345,366.
Abra had the third highest population with 241,160 while the provinces of Ifugao and Kalinga posted a population of 202,802 and 201,613, respectively.
Mountain Province recorded a population of 154,590 while the smallest province in terms of population size is Apayao with 119,184.
The PSA-CAR revealed the region’s annual growth rate was pegged at 1.21 percent during the period 2010-2015 and Benguet was found to be the fastest growing province with an average annual population growth of 1.91 percent followed by Baguio City at 1.54 percent. Ifugao, Apayao and Kalinga grew annually by 1.14, 1.08 and 1.02 percent, respectively and Mountain Province was the slowest growing province with 0.05 percent growth rate.
The PSA-CAR undertook the 2015 population census in August 2015 pursuant to Republic Act (RA) 10625 also known as the Philippine Statistics Act of 2015 and Executive Order No. 352 which designated statistically 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.
About 90,000 trained census-takers, 23,000 team supervisors, and 5,000 census area supervisors augmented the PSA personnel in the gigantic task of completing the counting of all persons nationwide, either as members of a household or as residents of an institutional living quarter.
The PSA-CAR added the updated information on the size of the population will provide government planners, policy-makers and administrators with data on which to base their social and economic development plans and programs.
The PSA-CAR explained specifically the data obtained from the census serves as basis for the government in re-districting and apportionment of congressional seats; allocation of resources and revenues, such as the internal revenue allotment for local government units; creation and conversion of political and administrative units, such as provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays; formulation of policies concerning various segments of the population and development of policies and programs relative to the delivery of basic social services.
On the other hand, business and industries sue the statistical information from the census in the identification of sites for establishing business and determining consumer demands and supply of labor for the production of various goods and services.
By virtue of Proclamation No. 1269 dated May 18, 2016, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III declared as official for all purposes the population counts for all provinces, cities and municipalities and barangays based on the population census in 2015.
By Dexter A. See
