THE region's population is expected to be at 1,833,760 this year based on the 1.70 population percent change of the Commission on Population (PopCom) – Cordillera.
The agency revealed the projected population of 2014 composed of 928,100 males while females are expected to be 905,660. In Abra, its projected population is 258,600 while Apayao will have 134,800; Benguet with 791,340; Ifugao will have 219,820; Kalinga with 239,700; and Mt. Province has a projected population of 189,500.
The 2014's projected population is higher than the 2013's with 1,798,920. Further, the agency projected a total of 1,868,600 population comes 2015.
Despite the rapid increase of population, Popcom targets to cut half of population by 2015.
Regional Director Rosa Fortaleza earlier said they are strengthening their Philippine Population Management Program (PPMP) in order to address the increasing population of the region. She said the program would like to respond to the current population growth rate of the region.
The 2010 National Statistics Office Census showed that CAR has an actual population of 1,616,867 out of the 92,337,852 population of the Philippines. Of the population of the region, Baguio City has 318,676 population with a 2.36 percent growth rate. Benguet has 403,944 population with a growth rate of 2.04 percent.
Fortaleza said the PPMP aims to lower the population growth rate from 2.04 percent to 1.4 percent by 2015.
In order to lessen the population growth rate, other aspects which affect the growth of the population must also be addressed. These are fertility rate and the contraceptive prevalence rate.
The regional director earlier said they want to lower the total fertility rate from 3.6 children per woman to 2.7 by 2015 and to achieve contraceptive prevalence rate of 61.3 percent by 2015 from 50.7 percent. She said this shows that 54 women out of 100 married women are using contraceptive. Popcom hopes to increase the number of married women using contraceptive.
The PPMP is a population policy guided by a policy that it is the couple’s responsibility to decide on the number of their children in accordance with their religious belief, demands of responsible parenthood and sustainable development.