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DAVAO CITY—This
city is the only city outside three Metro Manila cities
to have a population of more than 1 million.
But
Davao City, the fourth on the list, is also the largest
in size among the 135 cities nationwide, almost equal
the size of all the cities combined on the top 10 list
of most populous cities.
Quezon City
is the most populous, with 2,679,450 residents,
accounting for 3 percent of the country’s 88.57 million
population. It is followed by two other cities in the
National Capital Region, Manila with 1,660,714 and
Caloocan with 1,378,856.
Davao City
is close on the heels of Caloocan, with a population of
1,363,337.
The four
cities reaching the 1-million mark in population,
already account for 8 percent of the country’s
population.
The rest
of the most populous cities are Cebu City (fifth with
798,809 population); Zamboanga City (sixth with 774,407
); Pasig City (seventh with 617,301) and Taguig City
(eighth with 613,343); Valenzuela City (ninth with
568,928) and Cagayan de Oro City (10th with 553,966).
The updated list based on the National Statistics
Office’s 2007 Census of Population and provided by the
National Statistics Coordination Board said the country
has 136 cities. Of this number, 64 are in Luzon, 39 are
in the Visayas, and 33 are in Mindanao.
But
Davao City, with a land area of 2,443.6 sq km, is the
largest among the Philippine cities.
Including Zamboanga City’s 1,483.4 sq km, the nine
other most populous cities have a combined land area of
2,641.5 sq km, slightly more than this city’s.
There
are now 32 cities classified as highly urbanized cities
(HUCs), or cities with incomes not less than P50 million
and with a population not less than 200,000. The number
of cities under this category included the latest
entrant, Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu and Puerto Princesa City
in Palawan, which were converted in July last year from
being mere component cities of their respective
provinces.
The HUCs
comprise 23.5 percent of the 136 cities.
The
biggest number of cities are in the category of
component cities, with 100 of them. This category still
includes the city as part of the province where it used
to be a town, and whose population is under 200,000 and
whose voters are still entitled to vote for their
provincial elective officials.
Of the 136 cities, seven are the capital cities of their
original provinces. These are the cities of
Cebu, Lucena,
Iloilo,
Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, and Puerto Princesa. |
