Region 1 population reaches 5 million-mark

SAN FERNANDO CITY, July 5 (PIA) – Region 1 population reaches five million, an official from the Philippine Statistics Authority in Ilocos said.

Regional director Socrates Ramores of PSA-1 said as of August 1, 2015, the total population of Ilocos region is 5,025,128 based on the 2015 Census of Population (POPCEN 2015), the latest census conducted by their agency.

“This accounted to five percent of the country’s total population of 100,981,437,” said Socrates.

In 2015, the region’s population was higher by 278,000 compared with the population of 4.75 million in 2010 and by 826,000 compared with the population of 4.2 million in 2000.

“The region’s population increased by 1.09 percent annually, on average, during the period of 2010 to 2015,” Socrates added.

Of the country’s 18 administrative regions, region one ranked sixth in terms of population size.

Top three regions with biggest population are Region IV-A (CALABARZON) 14.41 million, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) with 12.88 million and Region III (Central Luzon) with 11.22 million.

Locally, among the four provinces of the region, Pangasinan was the most populous in 2015 with 2.96 million making it fourth among the 81 provinces with most number of population nationwide.

La Union lands second densely inhabited province in the region with 787,000 followed by Ilocos Sur at 690,000. Ilocos Norte, on one hand, is the least populated in the region with 593,000.

Among the cities and municipalities of the region, the most populous was San Carlos City (188,571), followed by Dagupan City (171,271), City of Urdaneta (132,940), and Malasiqui (130,275), all from the province of Pangasinan. The least populous municipality was Carasi with 1,567, followed by Adams with 1,792 both, from the province of Ilocos Norte. (Joanne Namnama P. Dilim/PIA-1 La Union with reports from PSA-1)