Batanes is the least populous province in 2020 with 18,831 persons

Batanes is the northernmost and the smallest province of the Philippines. In terms of population, it remained to be the least populous among all the provinces in the country. As of 01 May 2020, the total population of Batanes was 18,831 persons based on the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH). This was an increase of 2,227 persons from the population in 2000 (16,604 persons) and an addition of 1,585 persons from 2015 population count (17,246 persons).

Of the total population in 2020, 98.7 percent or 18,593 persons belong to the household population. Household population comprises of persons who belong to a household, and it excludes the population of persons in institutional living quarters such as prisons, construction camp, seminary, etc. Of this population, 51.3 percent or 9,541 were males and 48.7 percent or 9,052 were females. 
 

Lesser children are born in 2020

The combined age and sex composition of the province is shown in Figure 1. Notice that the structure of the population pyramid in 2020 started to narrow down to the base. This is visibly seen starting from the age group 15 to 19 years old tapering down to the population of younger age groups. This indicates that the population of Batanes is aging from below which means that lesser number of children are being born over time. In comparison, there were 1,518 children ages 5 to 9 years old which may more or less constitute to the population of 0 to 4 years in 2015 and is relatively larger than the population of 0 to 4 years old in 2020 at 1,342 children.

Batanes females live longer than males

The population of female senior citizen aged 60 years old and over outnumbered their male counterparts at 1,402 women compared to 977 men. These figures translate that there is a deficit of males in older age group. This may imply that females live longer than males or males die earlier than females as they aged. By municipality, Basco had the highest number of senior citizens with 400 males and 637 females. In contrast, Uyugan had the least number of senior citizens with 70 males and 107 females.

Half of the female population of Batanes is in childbearing years

Based on the 2020 CPH, there were 4,598 women in childbearing years ages 15 to 49 years enumerated or about 50.8 percent of the total female population. This implies that one in every two women in Batanes is in reproductive ages 15 to 49 years in 2020. The largest number of women by age group belong to 15 to 19 years at 874 women followed by those ages 20 to 24 years at 746 women and 25 to 29 years at 669 women.

Sex ratio for all ages in Batanes stands at 105 males in every 100 females

In terms of sex ratio, there were 105 males in every 100 females in Batanes considering all ages. At specific age groups, young dependents ages 0 to 14 years and working age or economically productive group ages 15 to 64 years both had a sex ratio of 111 males in every 100 females. In contrast, the old dependents 65 years and over had a sex ratio of 63 males in every 100 females. This further implies that more females reached older ages than males in the province.

Itbayat has the highest sex ratio at 122 males in every 100 females

By municipality, Itbayat had the highest sex ratio for all ages at 122 males in every 100 females while Basco has the lowest at 99 males in every 100 females. For the young dependents, the municipality of Uyugan had the highest ratio at 133 boys in every 100 girls while Ivana had the lowest at 90 boys in every 100 girls.

For the working age, Itbayat had the highest ratio at 130 males in every 100 females while Basco has the lowest ratio at 101 males in every 100 females. Itbayat also had the highest ratio for the 65 years and over at 81 males in every 100 females. On the other hand, Uyugan had the lowest ratio for the 65 years and over at 51 males in every 100 females.        
 

Female median age is higher by two years than males

Median age is the age that divides the population into two groups of equal-size, one of which is younger and the other of which is older than the median. In 2020, the calculated median age for female household population in Batanes is 30.3 years which means that half of the female population is younger, and the other half is older than the median age. This is higher than the median age for male household population at 28.3 years. In general, median age for females is higher than males in the province due to the fact that more females are reaching older ages than males.

By municipality, Mahatao had the highest median age for females at 33.6 years while Sabtang for males at 31.2 years. In terms of the difference, Uyugan had the biggest gap between female (33.2 years) and male (27.5 years) median ages at 5.7 years while Sabtang had the closest gap at about 0.7 years. 

 

There are more female dependents in the province in 2020

Table 1 presents the age dependency ratios for Batanes. The total dependency ratio (TDR) measures the ratio of the combined young-age (0-14 years old) and old-age (65 years old and over) populations with the population of working-age (15 years old to 64 years old). In 2020, the TDR of the province was 50 dependents of which 36 were young-age dependents and 14 were old-age dependents.

By sex, there were more female dependents (26 per 100 working population) compared to male dependents (24 per 100 working population). In younger population, there were more male dependents (19 per 100 economically active population) than female dependents (17 per 100 economically active population) while there were more female dependents than male dependents in the old-age population at 8 females compared to 5 males per 100 working-age population.

Basco’s dependency ratio is lower at 46 dependents per 100 working population

Among the six municipalities, Basco had the lowest TDR at 46 dependents per 100 working-age population, of which 35 were young dependents (19 males and 16 females) and 11 were old dependents (4 males and 7 females). On the other hand, the municipality of Itbayat had the highest TDR at 62 dependents per 100 economically active population, of which about 45 were young dependents (25 males and 20 females) and 16 were old dependents (7 males and 9 females).

The municipalities of Ivana, Sabtang, and Uyugan recorded a dependency ratio higher than the provincial TDR at 52, 56, and 56 dependents per 100 working-age population, respectively. Meanwhile, Mahatao recorded the same TDR with the province at 50 dependents per 100 working-age population, of which about 34 were young dependents (18 males and 20 females) and about 17 were old dependents (6 males and 11 females).

About 49% of household population 5 years old and over have more than secondary education

Population of Batanes five years old and over is at 17,251 persons where 51.3 percent or 8,857 were males and 48.7 percent or 8,394 were females. Of these population, 22.5 percent reported that their highest grade completed as of 2020 is below high school or those with no grade completed, early childhood education, and elementary, 31.0 percent is high school, and 46.3 percent had more than secondary education or those with post-secondary, short-cycle tertiary, college, and post baccalaureate education.

Two in five household population 0 to 5 years reach college

In terms of the educational attainment of the population, the 2020 CPH revealed that about 40 percent or 6,870 of the household population five years old and over reported to have completed or attended college in 2020. This includes the college undergraduate (2,331 persons), academic degree holder (4,240), and with post baccalaureate (299 persons) units or degree.

More females are pursuing higher education than males

Females were more highly educated than males with 2,385 women having an academic degree as compared to only 1,855 men. Also, more females (196) pursue a post baccalaureate degree than males (103). In graduate program, 56 males had master’s degree while 80 for females. Meanwhile, 11 males and 15 females had doctorate degree.

Batanes has a total of 5,547 households

There were 5,547 total number of households enumerated during the 2020 CPH of which 50.9 percent or 2,823 households were found in the capital town of Basco. Itbayat followed with the most number of households with 16.6 percent or 923 households. Meanwhile, the municipality of Uyugan had the least number of households at 7.3 percent or 399 households.

Ivatan households are usually headed by men

Men are usually the head of the households in Batanes comprising of 72.6 percent or 4,027 households headed by males. The remaining 27.4 percent or 1,520 households were headed by females. The municipality of Uyugan had the highest percentage of households headed by women at 30.1 percent followed by Mahatao at 29.6 percent and Basco at 28.7 percent. 

RAMIL G. ABAD
Chief Statistical Specialist 
     

//JIB