PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- Palawan’s “exceptional beauty” has attracted people from other places to take up residence here, said an officer of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
A recent report released by the PSA office in 2017 showed Palawan’s population has increased to almost 850,000 in 2015.
The increase in population is attributed to Palawan’s easy-going environment, which invites in-migration, said Evelyn Apellido, PSA Field Office’s supervising statistical specialist, Thursday afternoon.
“For one, Palawan’s exceptional beauty has gained prominence here in the country and abroad, and it has attracted people from other places to move in here,” she said.
“Its downside, however, is that more people are competing for our finite resources,” she added.
The 2015 Census of Population stated that the province had a total population of 849,469 as of Aug. 1, 2015. This was higher by 77,802 compared with 2010’s 771,667.
Palawan’s population annually grew at a rate of 1.8 percent during the period 2010 to 2015.
She said this means about 18 persons are added each year for every 1,000 persons in the population. The province also had a median age of 20.7 years in 2015.
However, that average population growth rate was lower compared to the past two decades, with 2.7 percent during 2000 to 2010 and 3.4 percent during 1990 to 2000.
“The dip was attributed to a number of factors, such as deaths, out-migration, and pursuing employment and studies and eventually settling down outside the province,” Apellido said.
Males also outnumbered females in the province, with a sex ratio of 108 males for every 100 females. “In Palawan, 51.9 percent were male while 49.1 percent were female,” the report stated.
In age-sex distribution, males were more than the females in the age groups of 0 to 69 years. Females tend to live longer as they were more than their male counterparts in the older age groups of 70 years old and over.
“Males die earlier because they are more inclined to have vices, which make them develop diseases in the long run. Also, more males had been involved in road accidents than females,” she added.
Relatedly, the provincial population’s age-sex distribution showed that children aged five to nine years comprised the largest age group, making up 12.6 percent of the household population.
This was closely followed by those in the age groups of zero to four years and 10 to 14 years, respectively, with 12.4 percent and 12.1 percent, the report added.
Looking at Palawan’s 2015 Household Population Age-Sex Pyramid, the state statistician said the trend is that the provincial population diminishes as people advance in life.
The report showed too, that Southern Palawan contributed 51.1 percent (434,239) to the province’s total population, while Northern Palawan recorded a share of 48.9 percent (415,230).
Among Palawan’s 23 towns, Bataraza had the biggest population size in 2015, totaling to 75,468 or 8.9% of the province’s total population.
The presence of two big mining companies in Barangay Rio Tuba, Bataraza has attracted people to move and work there, Apellido said.
Rio Tuba had a total population of 21,330, also the biggest among the province’s 367 barangays.
On one hand, Kalayaan, located in the West Philippine Sea, was the least populated town in the province and the entire country with 184 in 2015.
The PSA conducts census every five years and publishes the report after two years.
The next population census will be held in 2020 with its report to be released in 2022. (PNA)
Featured photo by Celeste Anna R. Formoso
