Philippine Provinces: Size and "Prosperity"

Because of the plebiscite on Republic Act 9495 -- a law that creates the new province of Quezon del Sur and renaming the remaining* part of Quezon into "Quezon del Norte" (which will effect a significant change for the people of the province) -- I have dug into this research** to see what stand statistics*** will support: "Yes" to the change or "No".

"Smaller is better," the proponents said, for the development of the province. Let's see what statistics says.

[Land area is expressed in square kilometers; source of geographical data****: Wikipedia]

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||Quezon Province: 8,706 sq. km (5th largest) ||

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Ranks 36th out of 79 Provinces on poverty incidence among families (excludes NCR Districts, Isabela City and Cotabato City) (year 2000 = 46th; yr2003 = 42nd; yr2006 = 36th)

Click here to see more official 2006 Poverty Statistics

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Top 10 least poor provinces/areas in 2000, 2003, 2006 (National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)):

(R = Region)

1. Bulacan: 2,637 sq km (29th smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
2. Rizal: 1,309 sq km (10th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
3. Laguna: 1,757 sq km (17th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
4. Bataan: 1,373 sq km (11th smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
5. Cavite: 1,297 sq km (9th smallest) -- CALABARZON, R4-A
   
6. Batanes: 209 sq km (smallest) -- Cagayan Valley, R2, island
   
7. Benguet: 2,599 sq km (49th largest) -- CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region)
   
8. Pampanga: 2,180 sq km (23rd smallest) -- Central Luzon, R3
   
9. Nueva Vizcaya: 3,904 sq km (33rd largest) -- Cagayan Valley, R2
   
10. Ilocos Norte: 3,399 sq km (27th smallest) -- Ilocos Region, R1
    

According to Gov. Luis Villafuerte Jr. in Inquirer.net: Camarines Sur (5,266 sq. km, 17th largest)--(Bicol Region, R5) is the 10th richest province in the Philippines (12-05-2008)

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Top 10 poorest provinces/areas in 2000, 2003, 2006 (National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)):

(R = Region; ARMM = Autonomous Region in Muslin Mindanao)

1. Masbate: 4,048 sq km (30th largest) -- Bicol Region, R5, island
   
2. Maguindanao: 4,900 sq km (21st largest) -- ARMM
   
3. Sulu: 1,600 sq km (15th smallest) -- ARMM, island
   
4. Ifugao: 2,518 sq km (24th smallest) -- CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region)
   
5. Lanao del Sur: 3,872 sq km (34th largest) -- ARMM
   
6. Camiguin: 230 sq km (2nd smallest) -- Northern Mindanao, R10
   
7. Camarines Norte: 2,112 sq km (25th smallest) -- Bicol Region, R5
   
8. Tawi-Tawi: 1,087 sq km (7th smallest) -- ARMM, island
   
9. Agusan del Sur: 8,966 sq km (4th largest) -- Caraga, R13
   
10. Romblon: 1,356 sq km (11th smallest) -- MIMAROPA, R4-B, island
    

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10 largest provinces (simply copied and pasted from Wikipedia :'p lazyboy):

Province	Capital	Region	Population	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
Palawan	Puerto Princesa City	Region IV-B	755,412	14,896.3	50.7
Isabela [2]	Ilagan	Region II	1,287,575	10,664.6	120.7
Cagayan	Tuguegarao City	Region II	993,580	9,002.7	110.4
Agusan del Sur	Prosperidad	Region XIII	559,294	8,966.0	62.4
Quezon	Lucena City	Region IV-A	1,679,030	8,706.6	192.8
Bukidnon	Malaybalay City	Region X	1,060,265	8,293.8	127.8
Negros Occidental [3]	Bacolod City	Region VI	2,565,723	7,926.1	323.7
Zamboanga del Norte	Dipolog City	Region IX	823,130	6,618.0	124.4
Cotabato	Kidapawan City	Region XII	958,643	6,569.9	145.9
Davao del Sur	Digos City	Region XI	1,905,917	6,377.6	298.8

10 smallest provinces (simply copied and pasted from Wikipedia :'p):

Province	Capital	Region	Population	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
Batanes	Basco	Region II	16,467	209.3	78.7
Camiguin	Mambajao	Region X	74,232	229.8	323.0
Siquijor	Siquijor	Region VII	81,598	343.5	237.5
Biliran	Naval	Region VIII	140,274	555.5	252.5
Guimaras	Jordan	Region VI	141,450	604.7	233.9
Metro Manila	Manila (Regional center)	NCR	9,932,560	636	15,617.2
Dinagat Islands	San Jose	Region XIII	106,951	802.12	133.3
Marinduque	Boac	Region IV-B	217,392	959.3	226.6
Tawi-Tawi	Bongao	ARMM	322,317	1,087.4	296.4
Basilan	Isabela City	ARMM	322,828	1,234.2	243.8

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I gotta sleep now... I can't interpret this now (It's 06:09 :'o).

Nevertheless, here's my short take: at first glance, it seems that the small provinces in Luzon really do have the lowest incidence of poverty, i.e., they're the most prosperous.

As for the "most poor", I think there's no comparison. Most of the poor provinces are in Mindanao (R10 and above, ARMM) where it's conflict-ridden. The two others in the list of the poorest that are not in Mindanao -- Camarines Norte and Ifugao -- are mountanous (right? please verify...). So, it's likely there's nothing to compare, really. Quezon's geographic and political conditions are different.

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*Try saying that several times as fast as you can :'p

**It's actually only something I stumbled upon. At first I thought about writing on how dividing the the Province to enable its development is an insult to (i.e. a testament to the incompetence of) the present officials of our Province.

***This is probably because I just watched the movie 21 yesterday :') It's about a group of MIT students who beat the blackjack system in Casinos in the U.S. using Mathematics. It's inspired by a true story.

****I'm afraid my rounding off of the numbers (from decimal to whole) was inconsistent. Cut me some slack, please. Land stuff moves. Sands are blown, rocks are built into houses, erosion, plate tectonics...

+ Sorry if there are errors in the data... I'm exhausted. I don't want to double check now. Or maybe not ever.