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Regions of the Philippines facts for kids

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Labelled map of the Philippines - Provinces and Regions
Regions of the Philippines

In the Philippines, regions (Tagalog: rehiyon) are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces (lalawigan) of the country for administrative convenience. Most government offices are established by region instead of individual provincial offices, usually (but not always) in the city that is the regional center.

The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has an elected regional assembly and governor.

List of regions

The Philippines has 17 administrative regions. Fourteen of these regions are designated with numbers corresponding to their geographic location in order from north to south. The National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao do not have numerical designations.

These regions are geographically combined into the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Following is a list of the regions in their island groupings.

The regions CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and SOCCSKSARGEN are written with upper case characters because they are acronyms that stand for their component provinces or cities. CALABARZON stands for CAvite, LAguna, BAtangas, Rizal and QueZON; MIMAROPA stands for Occidental and Oriental MIndoro, MArinduque, ROmblon and PAlawan; and SOCCSKSARGEN stands for SOuth Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, SARangani and GENeral Santos.

Island group: Luzon
Map Region
(short name)
Regional center Provinces Area (km2) Population
(2010)
Density
(per km2)
Ph fil ncr.png National Capital Region
(NCR)
Manila - 636 11,855,975 18641.5
Ph fil car.png Cordillera Administrative Region
(CAR)
Baguio 18,294 1,616,867 88.4
Ph fil ilocos.png Ilocos Region
(Region I)
San Fernando, La Union 12,840 4,748,372 369.8
Ph fil cagayan valley.png Cagayan Valley
(Region II)
Tuguegarao 26,838 3,229,163 120.3
Ph fil central luzon.png Central Luzon
(Region III)
San Fernando, Pampanga 21,470 10,137,737 472.2
Ph fil calabarzon.png CALABARZON
(Region IV-A)
Calamba, Laguna 16,229 12,609,803 777
Ph fil mimaropa.png MIMAROPA
(Region IV-B)
Calapan 27,456 2,744,671 100
Ph fil bicol.png Bicol Region
(Region V)
Legazpi 17,632 5,420,411 307.4
Island group: Visayas
Ph fil western visayas.png Western Visayas
(Region VI)
Iloilo City 20,223 7,102,438 351.2
Ph fil central visayas.png Central Visayas
(Region VII)
Cebu City 14,951 6,800,180 454.8
Ph fil eastern visayas.png Eastern Visayas
(Region VIII)
Tacloban 21,432 4,101,322 191.4
Island group: Mindanao
Ph fil zamboanga peninsula.png Zamboanga Peninsula
(Region IX)
Pagadian
  • Isabela City
  • Zamboanga City
  • Zamboanga del Norte
  • Zamboanga del Sur
  • Zamboanga Sibugay
14,811 3,407,353 230.1
Ph fil northern mindanao.png Northern Mindanao
(Region X)
Cagayan de Oro 17,125 4,297,323 250.9
Ph fil davao region.png Davao Region
(Region XI)
Davao City
  • Compostela Valley
  • Davao City
  • Davao del Norte
  • Davao del Sur
  • Davao Oriental
  • Davao Occidental
20,244 4,468,563 220.7
Ph fil soccsksargen.png SOCCSKSARGEN
(Region XII)
Koronadal
  • Cotabato
  • Cotabato City
  • General Santos
  • Sarangani
  • South Cotabato
  • Sultan Kudarat
18,433 4,109,571 222.9
Ph fil caraga.png Caraga
(Region XIII)
Butuan 18,847 2,429,224 128.9
Ph fil armm.png Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM)
Cotabato City
  • Basilan (excluding Isabela City)
  • Lanao del Sur
  • Maguindanao
  • Sulu
  • Tawi-Tawi
12,695 3,256,140 256.5

Related pages

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Anexo:Regiones de Filipinas para niños

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