Urban area population grows by 7.2M in 5 yrs

IN just half a decade, 7.2 million Filipinos were added to the population of those living in urban areas due to the increase of populations in barangays outside the National Capital Region (NCR), according to the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom).

On Tuesday, the PSA said some 58.93 million or 54 percent of the total 109.03 million population of the Philippines live in urban barangays. This was 7.2 million more than the 51.73 million urban residents nationwide in 2015.

This means an average of 1.44 million Filipinos yearly became part of the country’s growing urban population. This, Popcom Executive Director and Undersecretary for Population and Development Juan Antonio A. Perez III, can be due to the 3,525 barangays which could result in highly populated barangays outside NCR.

“One can conclude that urbanization in the Philippines is being driven by increasing populations in urban barangays outside NCR and concentrated in 3,525 barangays which could result in highly populated barangays outside NCR. Popcom will make a study on the areas outside NCR that are rapidly urbanizing,” Perez told Businessmirror on Tuesday.

While there are 488 out of 3,525 barangays that are already experiencing urbanization, Perez said, the population in these barangays increased by 6.46 million.

“This means that the barangays grew at an average of 1,832 persons in the last five years,” Perez said. “(Another) conclusion that can be made based on the growing rural population is that more people are opting to stay in rural areas.”

The PSA said the level of urbanization or the proportion of the total population living in barangays classified as urban was recorded at 54 percent in 2020. This is 2.8 percentage points higher than the 51.2 percent level of urbanization in 2015.

However, PSA data showed that between 2015 and 2020, the rate of urbanization was computed at 2.4 percent.

This is lower by 2.2 percentage points compared to the 4.6 percent tempo of urbanization posted between 2010 and 2015.

“The tempo of urbanization is an indicator to express the speed at which an area is moving toward an urban classification. In this report, it is calculated by taking the difference between the growth rate of the urban population and the growth rate of the rural population,” PSA explained.

PSA said the urban population of the Philippines increased 2.8 percent annually from 2015 to 2020. This is lower than the 4.1 percent annual average posted between 2010 and 2015.

Moreover, the rural population improved by 0.4 percent annually between 2015 to 2020 from a 0.5-percent annual decline between the period 2010 to 2015.

According to Perez, the findings of the 2018 National Migration Survey conducted by PSA and the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) predicted what is unfolding today. NCR was shown to be losing migrants to other regions, particularly Eastern Visayas.

Citing data from the PSA-UPPI survey, he added that migration was then dominated by rural-rural migration at 48 percent rather than rural to urban at 46 percent.

“Also contributing to the slower tempo of urbanization is the slowing population growth in NCR from 1.63 percent (2010-2015) to 0.97 percent (2015-2020). Rural population growth which was -0.5 became positive at 0.4. Category 3 urban barangays also declined by 5 percent,” Perez also said.

Besides the NCR, which is classified as entirely urban, four other regions posted a level of urbanization higher than the national level 54 percent, PSA said.

These were Region 4A-calabarzon at 70.5 percent; Region 11Davao, 66.8 percent; Region 3-Central Luzon, 66.3 percent; and Region 12-Soccsksargen, 55.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the five regions with the lowest level of urbanization were Region 8-Eastern Visayas at 14.7 percent; Region 2-Cagayan Valley, 19.5 percent; Region 5-Bicol, 23.8 percent; Region 1-Ilocos, 25.5 percent; and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM, 27.6 percent.

In terms of provinces, 11 out of 81 provinces registered a level of urbanization higher than the national level in 2020 of 54 percent.

Rizal topped the list with 94.6-percent urbanization rate, followed by Bulacan at 85.7 percent; Laguna, 79.3 percent; Cavite, 76.9 percent; and Pampanga, 75 percent.

The data also showed that among the 17 highly urbanized cities (HUCS) outside the NCR, around 16 had a level of urbanization of at least 60 percent.

The City of Angeles and City of Mandaue had the highest level of urbanization with 100 percent each, followed by the Cities of Olongapo and General Santos with urbanization levels of 98.5 percent and 98.4 percent, respectivity.

“With an urbanization level of 56 percent, the City of Tacloban was the only HUC outside the NCR that posted an urbanization level lower than 60 percent,” PSA added.

In terms of population, PSA said the City of Davao posted the biggest urban population among the HUCS outside the NCR, with 1.63 million urban residents or a level of urbanization of 91.8 percent.

It was followed by the City of Cebu with 908,195 urban population and 94.2 percent level of urbanization, and the City of Zamboanga with 869,929 urban population and 89 percent level of urbanization.