BULACAN'S TOTAL POPULATION APPROACHED THREE MILLION PERSONS

(Results from the 2007 Census of Population) Number of households increased by 124,807 The total population of Bulacan was 2,822,216 persons as of August 1, 2007, based on the 2007 Census of Population. This figure was higher by 588,128 persons over the population count of 2,234,088 persons in 2000. The recent population count for the province translated to an average annual population growth rate of 3.27 percent for the period 2000 to 2007. The number of households in 2007 reached 588,693, which was 124,807 households more than the number of households in 2000. The average household size in 2007 and 2000 remained at 4.8 persons. City of San Jose del Monte was the most populated area Among the 3 cities and 21 municipalities in Bulacan, the City of San Jose del Monte was the most populous with a population of 439,090 persons or 15.6 percent of the provincial total population. Next to this were the City of Malolos (8.0 percent), the provincial capital, municipality of Santa Maria (7.3 percent), City of Meycauayan (7.0 percent), and municipality of Marilao (5.7 percent). The rest of the municipalities had a share of less than five percent each. The municipality of Doa Remedios Trinidad (0.7 percent) had the least share. Almost equal distribution of household population by sex Of the 2,816,007 household population of Bulacan, there were almost equal distribution of males (50.2 percent) and females (49.8 percent), or a sex ratio of 101 males for every 100 females. The sex ratio in 2000 was one male for every one female.

Half of the population of Bulacan were below 23 years old The household population of Bulacan had a median age of 23 years, which means that half of the household population were below 23 years old. The median age for the province in 2007 was one year higher than the median age of 22 years recorded in 2000. The age-sex structure of the household population of Bulacan in 2007 slightly deviated from the usual pyramid shape. The proportion of the population in the ages 0 to 4 years (11.5 percent) was slightly lower than the age group 5 to 9 years (11.6 percent). Three out of five persons were in voting-age population Nearly 60 percent of the household population of Bulacan were in the votingage group (18 years old and over). The distribution of voting-age population by sex showed that females (50.7 percent) outnumbered the males (49.3 percent). Overall dependency ratio decreased to 61 dependents per 100 persons in the working-age group The proportion of household population in the working-age group (15 to 64 years) was 62.1 percent; young dependents (0 to 14 years), 34.1 percent; and old dependents (65 years and over), 3.8 percent. The overall dependency ratio was 61, which means that for every 100 persons in the working-age group, there were 61 dependents (55 young dependents and 6 old dependents). In 2000, there were 64 dependents (58 young dependents and 6 old dependents) for every 100 persons in the working-age population.

Never married persons comprised more of males than females Of the household population 10 years old and over in 2007, 44.8 percent were married while 43.1 percent were never married. The rest of the population 10 years old and over were either widowed (4.3 percent), divorced/separated (1.7 percent), had common law/live-in marital arrangement (5.6 percent), or had unknown marital status (0.5 percent). Among the never married persons, there were more males (53.2 percent) than females (46.8 percent). Females outnumbered the males in the rest of the categories for marital status. In 2000, the proportion of married persons was 48.4 percent, while the proportion of never married persons was 41.2 percent of the total household population 10 years old and over. More females pursued higher levels of education Of the household population 5 years old and over, 34.2 percent had attended or finished elementary education and 35.4 percent had reached high school. Proportion of academic degree holders was 9.2 percent, an increase of 4.1 percentage points from 5.1 percent in 2000. More females pursued higher levels of education than males as proportion of females among academic degree holders was 57.1 percent. Moreover, 60.9 percent of those with post baccalaureate courses were females. Among the household population 5 to 24 years old, more than three fifths (63.8 percent) attended school at anytime during the School Year 2007 to 2008. The proportion of males (63.7 percent) to the male household population 5 to 24 years who attended school during the said school year was almost equal to the proportion of females who attended school (64.0 percent) to the female household population 5 to 24 years for the same period. Ratio of occupants to occupied housing units decreased From a total of 456,208 occupied housing units in 2000, the number of occupied housing units in Bulacan reached 578,510 in 2007, indicating an increase of 26.8 percent. The average number of households for every 100 occupied housing units in 2007 and 2000 was the same at 102 households. As to the number of persons per occupied housing unit, a ratio of 4.9 persons per occupied housing unit was recorded in both years. Most occupied housing units were made of strong materials

A large proportion of the occupied housing units in Bulacan used concrete/brick/stone (61.7 percent) as construction materials for the outer walls. On the other hand, the proportion of occupied housing units with outer walls made of bamboo/sawali/cogon/nipa dropped from 3.6 percent in 2000 to 2.9 percent in 2007, or a difference of 0.7 percentage point. Meanwhile, majority (88.3 percent) of the occupied housing units in 2007 had roofs made of galvanized iron/aluminum. Use of cogon/nipa/anahaw for the roof decreased from 2.2 percent in 2000 to 1.0 percent in 2007.

(Sgd.) CARMELITA Administrator

N.

ERICTA