Glossary

Places and their governments

Island group

Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao: how the country's regions are grouped to find them. An island group is not a level of government.

In detail, with sources: Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao are the country's three island groups. They are not a level of government. The Constitution names the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays as the country's territorial and political subdivisions; an island group has no officials or laws of its own.^[1]

Region

A group of provinces and cities the national government uses to run its offices and keep its statistics. Most regions have no government of their own; Bangsamoro governs itself.

In detail, with sources: A region groups provinces and cities so that their officials and the national government's offices can plan the region's growth together.^[1] A region is not a local government: those are the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays.^[1] Of the 18, only Bangsamoro governs itself, with a parliament of its own.^[2]

Province

A local government led by a governor, made up of cities and municipalities. A highly urbanized city lies in a province but governs itself apart from it.

In detail, with sources: A province is a local government made up of municipalities and component cities, led by a governor, a vice governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the provincial board.^[3] A highly urbanized city lies inside a province but governs itself apart from it, so the PSA counts its people apart from the province's.^{[1, 4]}

City

A city is a local government of more built-up barangays, led by a mayor, a vice mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod, the city council.^[3] Only Congress can make a city, by law, approved in a plebiscite. Since 2001 the law asks for an income of ₱100 million a year and either 100 km² of land or 150,000 people.^{[3, 5]}

City class

A highly urbanized city or an independent component city governs itself apart from the province around it: its voters do not elect the governor. A component city is part of its province.

In detail, with sources: A city of 200,000 people and ₱50 million a year can be declared highly urbanized by the President, after a plebiscite.^[3] Highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities whose voters do not vote for the province's officials, govern themselves apart from their province; a component city is part of it.^[1]

Municipality

A municipality is a local government made up of barangays, led by a mayor, a vice mayor and the Sangguniang Bayan, the municipal council.^[3] Only Congress can create one, by law, approved in a plebiscite. The law asks for an income of ₱2.5 million a year, 25,000 people and 50 km² of land.^[3]

Barangay

The smallest unit of government in the Philippines, led by a punong barangay (the kapitan) and a council.

In detail, with sources: The barangay is the smallest local government: where the government's plans and services reach the community, and where neighbours settle disputes.^[3] A punong barangay, often called the kapitan, leads it with seven elected kagawad and the chairperson of the Sangguniang Kabataan.^[3]

Poblacion

The town proper: the barangay, or the few barangays, at a town's centre, where its town hall usually stands.

Legislative district

The area that elects one member of the House of Representatives. A big province or city may have several.

Income class

The Department of Finance sorts provinces, cities and municipalities into classes by their average yearly income over recent years: 1st class has the most. It measures the local government's income, not how well off its people are.

PSGC code

The code the Philippine Statistics Authority gives every place, so each one is known exactly, even when two share a name.

People and the census

Census

A count of every person in the country, all on one day. The 2024 census counted people as they were on 1 July 2024.

Household

A person living alone, or people who sleep in the same home and share their meals. A family may be one household or several.

Growth a year

How fast the number of people changed each year between two censuses. 1% a year means about 1 more person for every 100 people, each year.

How Scene works it out

Population density

How crowded a place is on average: its people divided by its land area. 1,000 people per square kilometre is 10 people per hectare, a square of 100 by 100 metres.

How Scene works it out

Urban barangay

The PSA counts a barangay as urban when it has 5,000 people or more, or a big employer, or several businesses and public services close by. Every barangay in Metro Manila is urban.

How Scene shows it

Rank and share

Worked out by Scene from the PSA's counts: where a place stands among the places listed with it, and how many of every 100 of its parent's people live in it.

Land, climate and the economy

Land area

The land inside the place's official boundary. A square kilometre is a square 1 km on each side, about the size of 140 football fields.

How Scene measures a barangay's

Climate type

PAGASA sorts the country's climate into four types by when the rain falls. Type I has a dry season from November to April and a wet one for the rest of the year; Type II has no dry season, with the most rain from December to February; Type III has a short dry season; Type IV has rain spread through the year.

Gross domestic product

The value of all the goods and services made in a place in a year: the size of its economy. The PSA measures it for every region, province and highly urbanized city. Counted at 2018 prices, it leaves out the rise in prices, so one year can be set beside another.

Poverty incidence

How many of every 100 people live in families whose income is below the poverty line: what a person needs in a year for food and other basic needs, as the PSA sets it for each province. It is an estimate, from a survey or, for a town, a statistical model, so the PSA gives a range it is likely to fall in.

How Scene says what it knows

Official figure

A figure as its source publishes it. Its source is named and linked beside it, and listed at the foot of the page.

Calculated by Scene

A figure Scene works out from an official source's figures, such as a share, a rank or a density. The figure's card says how, and the method is published.

Every method

Explained by Scene

A way to picture a figure, such as a place's land as a square of the same size. It is never a figure of its own.

About

Written before a figure that is approximate: a barangay's land area measured inside a border drawn as a guide, and the density worked out from it.

How Scene measures it

Not yet published

No official source gives the figure for this place yet. The page says so in the figure's place, with who has not published it and why, and never shows a 0, a dash or a guess.

How Scene says what is unknown

Nearest across the water

For an island place that shares no border on land with another of its level, the places of its level nearest it across the sea, measured between their borders where they come closest. It is never a boat or ferry route.

How Scene measures it

Sources

What each level's lines rest on: the Constitution and the laws, read on lawphil.net, and the PSA's note on whose people a province counts. The plain words are Scene's own, and each figure's source is on the page that shows it.