DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ILOCOS
NORTE
(Submitted by Alex R. Barut)
POPULATION
Population reaches more than half a million
The 2000 Census of Population and Housing showed that Ilocos
Norte had a total population of 514,241, registering an increase of 6.5 percent
over the 482,651 persons counted in September 1995. Compared to the figure during the first
census of population conducted in 1903, the population in 2000 is about three
times higher.
In terms of barangays, Brgy. Davila, Pasuquin had the
highest population of 3206, which is almost three times bigger than the
population of the smallest municipality (Carasi) in the province. On the other hand, the Brgy. Brgy. Sapat,
Pasuquin had the lowest population of 86.
POPULATION GROWTH
Population grows at the rate of 1.37 percent
The average annual population growth rate of the province
from 1995 to 2000 is 1.37 percent. This
is more than twice the 0.84 percent growth rate during the 1990 to 1995
period. If the current annual population
growth rate of 1.37 percent continues, the population of the province is
expected to double in 51 years, increasing by more than seven thousand persons
every year or around one person every hour.
The annual population growth rate of Ilocos Norte
experienced up and down movements in between census periods since 1903. The highest was recorded during the period of
1960 to 1970 at 1.76 percent and the lowest at 0.41 percent from 1918 to 1939.
POPULATION
PROJECTION
The population is expected to reach 587 thousand in 2010
Based from the 1995-based population projection, the
population of Ilocos Norte is expected to reach
587,000 persons in 2010, giving an increase of about 73,000 from the figure of 514,241
recorded in 2000.
With respect to sex, the population of males in the province
is estimated to be 294,114 and 309,875 in 2015.
On the other hand, the population of females will become 293,006 in 2010
and 308,304 in 2015.
POPULATION DENSITY
The population density goes up by 5.0 percent
The total land area of Ilocos Norte is estimated at 345.9
square kilometer and the total population in 2000 was 514,241, thus resulting
to a population density of 147 persons per square kilometer. The population density increased by 5.0
percent from the figure of 140 in 1995.
In terms of percent change in density, Carasi recorded the
highest at 30.8 percent in between 1995 and 2000 while Marcos had the lowest at
-61.0 percent.
AGE AND SEX STRUCTURE
There are more males than females
In 2000, the number of males is higher than the number of
females in Ilocos Norte with a sex ratio of 100.4. This figure is slightly higher than the sex
ratio of 99.3 recorded in 1995. Across
city and municipalities, Dumalneg had maintained the highest sex ratio (115.1
in 2000 and 111.2 in 1995) while
As age increases, population decreases
Generally, the age-sex structure of the population of Ilocos
Norte in 2000 showed that as the age increases, the population of each age
group decreases. Both males and females
showed a deviation from the normal pyramid with the age group 0 to 4 years
registering 5.4 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively, as compared to age group
10 to 14 years with 5.5 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
The population from birth up to age 39 was greater among
males than females. At age group 0 to 4, male population was accounted to 5.44
percent of the total population while the female population of the same age
group was comprised of 5.00 percent. But
beyond the age of 39, the proportion of females became higher.
Compared to five years ago, the age-sex structure followed
about the same shape as that in 2000. However,
it was noted that the base of the pyramid in 1995 was wider. This means that there was a higher fertility
in 1995. The wider base in 1995 was
maintained until the age of 14 years old.
This means that the proportion of persons below 14 years old in 1995 is
greater than in 2000. On the other hand,
the upper portion of the pyramid representing ages 75 years old and over was
narrower in 1995. This means that the
proportion of persons 75 years old and over was smaller in 1995 than in 2000.
DEPENDENCY RATIO
The number of dependents declines
In 2000, the population 0-14 constituted 31.7 percent of the
total population. The age group 15 to 64
years old made up 61.5 percent while the elderly population (65 years old and
over) had 6.8 per cent of the
population.
The overall dependency ratio in 2000 was 62.7. This means that for every 100 persons aged 15
to 64 years, there were about 63 dependents (52 persons aged 0 to 14 and 11
persons aged 65 and over. In 1995, this
ratio was 67.4. This means that there
was a decline in the proportion of the dependent population which implies an increase
in the proportion of the working population.
Across the city and municipalities, Nueva Era had the
highest dependency ratio of 79.0 in 2000 while
CHILD-WOMAN RATIO
Child-woman ratio decreases
The
child-woman ratio in 2000 was 411.1.
This means that there were about 411 children under age five per 1000
women of childbearing age. Compared with
the result in 1995, the child woman ratio in 2000 declined by about 25 children
from the recorded figure of 436.3.
HOUSEHOLD SIZE
Average household size decreases slightly
The number of households rose from 99,653 households in 1995
to 106,939 in 2000. With the population
of 514,241, the average household size slightly decreased from 4.83 persons in
1995 to 4.80 persons in 2000.
Among the city and municipalities, Dumalneg had the highest
household size of 6.22, followed by Adams (5.50) and Carasi (5.33). On the other hand, Vintar had the lowest household
size of 4.62.
MARITAL STATUS
About half of the population are married
The population 10 years old and over totaled 406,065 in 2000. Of which, 45.3 percent were married, lower than the 1995
figure (46.7%) by 1.4 percentage points.
Likewise, the proportion of single persons decreased to 43.9 percent in
2000, from 44.64 percent in 1995. The
proportion of widowed also slightly decreased from 5.8 percent in 1995 to 5.7
percent. Those with other arrangement
went up from 2.4 percent to 3.9 percent in 2000.
Compared to the figure in 1995, the number of common law or
live-in persons increased by 1.5 percentage points. It was observed in the province that there
were those who prefer to be in live-in status because of their pending
petitions to the
In terms of age, it is expected that most (58.0 %) of the
single persons were of age below 20 years old while the least were widowed
persons of age 80 years old and over in 2000.
On the other hand, most (14.3%) of the married persons were of age 30 –
34 years.
The peak of separation was at age 40 to 44, which accounted
to 15.6 percent of the separated/divorced persons in 2000. On the other hand, most of the persons with
live-in or divorced status were of age 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 years old. After these ages, the number of live-in or
divorced persons decreases.
MOTHER TONGUE/ETHNICITY
Majority of the household population are Ilocanos
In 2000, majority (96.6%) of the population of Ilocos Norte
classified themselves as Ilocanos. The
remaining three percent were either Tagalog (0.6%), Apayao (0.3%),
Kankanai/Kankanaey (0.3%), Tinggian (0.2%) and the other 1.4 percent belonged
to other ethnic groups. The Tagalogs
were widely distributed in the province while the Apayao and Kankanai/Kankanaey
were greatly concentrated in
In 1995, higher proportions of Ilocanos (97.3%), Tagalogs
(1.00%) and Apayaos (0.3%) to the population were noted compared to the data in
2000.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
Majority of the population are Roman Catholics
In 2000 more than half (54.2%) of the population in Ilocos
Norte were affiliated with the Roman Catholic Religion. This is followed by Aglipayans (28.8%) and
Evangelicals (5.1%).
MIGRATION
The movement of the population can be traced in terms of the
place of residence observed in a given period.
In this section, the period considered is five years. However, only in-migration can be seen, hence
it considered only the number of in-migrants.
More than 95 percent are in the same residence five years
ago
In 2000, the population of persons five years old and over
totaled 459,616, of which 95.2 percent stayed in the same city/municipality
five years ago. Those whose places of
residence were in other city/municipalities within the province, other
provinces and foreign countries were the in-migrants and these had a proportion
of about 3.1 percent. On the other hand,
those who had unknown places of
residence five years ago accounted to 1.69 percent. In 1990, almost the same
proportion (95.2%) stayed in the same city/municipality five years ago. A bit higher proportion 4.3 percent was
accounted to the in-migrants while a very small proportion of 0.5 percent had
unknown place of residence five years ago from 1990.
Among the city and municipalities in 2000,
Female outnumbers male in-migrants
For those whose residence is outside their present residence
in 2000 (excluding unknown), the sex ratio was 71.5. This means that for every 100 females there
were about 72 male in-migrants. In 1990, there were about 80 males for every
100 female in-migrants.
VITAL STATISTICS
The data presented in this section
were number of live births and deaths and a few indicators relating to births
and deaths taken from the vital statistics reports in 2001 and 2002. However, the leading causes of deaths were
taken from the data based on hospital reports in Ilocos Norte.
Number of marriage goes up by 6.12 percent
The number of marriage in 2002
totaled 3,848, registering an increase
of 6.12 percent compared to the figure recorded in 2001. Compared to the number recorded in 2000, a
slight decrease of 0.34 percent was noted. Of the 3,838 marriage recorded in
2002, 780 were solemnized in
In terms of marriage rates from 2000
to 2002, the highest rate of 7.51 was
noted in 2002. this means that, for
every 1000 population, there were about
eight who get married. On the other
hand, the lowest marriage rate was recorded in 2001.
Most marriages occur in April
In 2001 and 2002, most marriages
(534 and 619, respectively) were registered in April. This has broken the trend that most people
get married in June or December. This
might have been due to the observation that after graduation from college, many
get married. In 2000, however, the bulk
of marriages were noted in December.
Number of live births continues to decline
The number of registered live births by place of occurrence in
2002 totaled 10,692, registering a decrease of 0.72 percent compared to the
figure recorded in 2001 and a decrease of 3.49 percent compared to the number
in 2000. Similar observation was also
noted in terms of the number of live births by usual residence of mother. This
may imply a continuous decline in fertility.
The natural increase in population reaches about 7000 a year
The difference between the number of live births and deaths
in 2002 was 6,878. This means that in
that year, there was a natural increase of 6,878 persons in the population or a
natural rate of increase of 14.81. This means that there are about 15 persons
added yearly for every 1000 population. In
2000 and 2001, the natural rates of increase were 6.74 and 7.18, respectively.
There are more male than female births
In 2002, the number of registered male live births by place
of occurrence was greater than the number of female live births as shown by the
sex ratio of 108.7. This trend was also
observed in 2000 and 2001. In terms of
month, it was consistently observed that October and September had the highest
numbers of registered live births.
Similar observations were noted in terms of the number of live births by
usual residence of mother.
Most mothers give birth at the age of 20-24 years old
Most mothers give birth at the age of 20 – 24 years old as
shown in Table 4.21 and as have been observed for the three years covered. This is expected because most females marry
at this age range.
The number of deaths also declines
The total number of registered deaths in 2002 by place of occurrence
in Ilocos Norte totaled 3814, lower by 3.1 percent compared to the 3,938 figure
in 2001 but higher by 10.1 percent than in 2000.
With respect to the months of occurrence, August in 2002 had
the highest (406) number of deaths while February had the lowest (282). In 2001 and 2000, the highest numbers were
registered in October (372) and in July (333), respectively. On the other hand, the lowest numbers
registered in 2001 and 2002 were noted in February (277) and in October (246),
respectively.
The number of male deaths is very much higher
than female deaths
In terms of sex, the number of male deaths (in terms of
place of occurrence) is very much higher than female deaths as shown by the sex
ratios of 133.6, 128.6 and 132.6, respectively for 2000, 2001 and 2002. Similar observation was also noted in terms
of usual residence.
Most deaths occurred among persons aged
80 – 84 years old
In 2002, the most number (422 or or 10.97 percent) of deaths
with respect to usual residence occurred among persons aged 80 – 84 years old, followed by aged 85 – 89
years old. Similar observation was noted
in 2001. In 2000, however, most deaths
(509 or 14.78 percent) occurred among infants (under one year old).
More than half of deaths occurred among married persons
In 2002, the most number (58.49%) of deaths by usual place
of residence occurred among married persons, followed by single persons
(22.67%). This observation is also true
in 2000 and 2002.