Philippine Statistics Authority

Guimaras, the smallest and newest province of Western Visayas, had grown in terms of population. From a total population of only 73,014 persons thirty years ago, it almost doubled its size with a total of 141,450 in the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. It registered an annual growth rate of 1.8 percent from 1990 to 2000 and 2.4 percent from 1995 to 2000. Similarly, the number of households also rose to 27,465, higher by 3,654 households from 1995. This gave an average household size of 5.1 persons, lower than the 1995 average of 5.3 and slightly higher than the national average of five persons.

Of the five municipalities in Guimaras, Buenavista, comprising 30 percent of the total provincial population, was the largest in terms of population size. Nueva Valencia and Jordan followed with 22 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Sibunag and San Lorenzo had the least population with 14 percent each.

Guimaras had the least population in Region VI, contributing only 2.28 percent to the 6,208,733 population of the region. At the national level, Guimaras shared 0.18 percent to the total Philippine population of 76.5 million as recorded in the Census 2000.

Guimaras had a very young population with a median age of 22 years and an average age of 26 years. The age bracket 0 to 15 years comprised 38 percent of the total population. Male population outnumbered their female counterparts in Guimaras with a sex ratio of 105 males for every 100 females. There were more males than females in the age bracket 0 to 54. As the age advanced to 55 years onwards, however, the females dominated their malecounterparts.

In 2000, the 0 to 14 age group made up 36 percent of the population while those aged 65 years and above comprised five percent. Thus, the economically active population, aged 15 to 64, was 59 percent of the total population in Guimaras.

Of the total population five years old and over, almost half (47 percent) had attended or completed elementary education. Twenty seven percent had either attended or finished high school while 7.4 percent had attended college. Only two percent were academic degree holders. More than half of

those who had attended or finished elementary education (53.7 percent) and post secondary (57.3 percent) were males. On the other hand, those who had attended or finished high school, college and post baccalaureate were predominantly females.

Nine out of ten of the household population in Guimaras classified themselves as Ilongo/Hiligaynon. A minority of 2.8 percent considered themselves as Karay-a/Kinaray-a, followed by the Kankanaeys with only 0.25 percent. The remaining 4.5 percent were either Cebuano, Tagalog, or any other ethnicity.

Almost half (48 percent) of 10 years old and above were single, while 44 percent were married. The remaining eight percent were either widowed, divorced/separated, common-law/live-in or with unknown marital status.

Of the 27,486 housing units in Guimaras, 27,115 were occupied, an increase of 28 percent from 1990. This registered a ratio of one household per housing unit and a ratio of five household members per occupied housing unit.