C. Visayas literacy rate at 98.5 percent – PSA

CEBU CITY— The literacy rate for Central Visayas now based on the 2015 census of population is at 98.5 percent higher than the literacy rate in the 2010 census which was at 97.1 percent.

In a Data Dissemination Forum here recently, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Central Visayas reported that simple literacy means a person is considered literate if he/she is able to read and write a simple message in any language or dialect.

Literacy rate in 2015 was slightly higher among females at 98.6 percent than among males at 98.5 percent. Similarly, literacy rate in 2010 females also had slightly higher rate at 97.2 percent than among males at 97 percent.

Interesting to note that 52.9 percent of females in the region are degree holders compared to males with only 47.1 percent and 59.3 percent of the females have post graduate courses compared to males at 40.7 percent, according to PSA data.

Overall education data showed that 38.8 percent of those five years old and above had attended elementary, 33.6 percent reached or finished high school while 97.7 percent were in college undergrads and 10.6 percent are degree holders.

Data also showed that males outnumbered females in the never-married category with males registering at 29.9 percent than females with 20.5 percent.

In the same forum, PSA-7 senior statistics specialist Myrna Trinidad Cataluna shared that Central Visayas has 4,973,583 household population ages 15 and over and of this total, 60.1 percent or 2M were engaged in gainful activity.

About 3.2 percent (1,196,423) of them were overseas workers and the largest age group of total overseas workers are aged 45 and over.

Overall dependency ratio in the region in 2015 was at 61 dependents for every 100 persons in the working age group, Cataluna bared. She said that 62.2 percent belonged to the working age population, those 15-64 years old.

“There are more children (32.3 percent) below 15 years old who are dependent at home; and less dependency among the older persons 65 years old and above which accounted only at 5.4 percent,” Cataluna said.

Central Visayas population is now at 7,396,898 persons with an average growth rate of 1.7 percent annually during the 2010-2015 period, the PSA said.

It means 17 persons were added per year for every 1,000 persons in the population. Growth rate during the 2000-2010 period was higher at 1.9 percent but the highest during the 1990-2000 period at 2.4 percent average growth.

According to Cataluna, the country’s population is a young generation and there are more males than females. In Central Visayas population of 7,396,898, (50.5 percent) are males while 49.5 percent are females.

Age-sex distribution of the population showed that children ages 0-4 and 5-9 years old comprised the largest age groups, which is 7.6 percent of the household population. Those in the 10-14 years old is 7.2 percent while the 15-19 years old account for 6.7 percent.

However, in the age group category, there are more males than females in the 0-54 years old, she added but females outnumbered the males in the older groups 55 years old and over, PSA data revealed.

“Median age of the country’s population was 24.3 years, which means half of the total population was below 24.3 years old,” Cataluna said.

Median age in the country’s population was highest in the NCR at 26.2 years old and lowest at ARMM at 18.3 years old, she added.

In Central Visayas on the hand, median age is at 24.2 years, highest in Siquijor at 28.7 years old and lowest in Cebu (excluding the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapulapu) is at 23.8 years old, Cataluna reported.