Approximately Naval is 122 kms. and 88 kms. away from the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc, respectively of the mainland Leyte with travel time that only takes about 2 hours through a well-paved highway.
The locality has a total land area of 10,824 hectares divided into 26 political subdivisions/barrio (called Barangay). As of the year 2000 official census, Naval has a total population of 37,974 registering an average growth rate of about 2.8% per year. The town is pre-dominantly Roman Catholic by religion and Cebuano speaking by its dialect.
Manifestly being the capital town of the province, Naval is the seat of provincial government and is the center of trade and commerce of the entire island province, as well as to the neighboring proximate municipalities that are under the jurisdiction of the Leyte province. Naval is as well, the center of education being where the only tertiary school located serving for the above described area. With Catholicism having a very significant part of its local history and culture, Naval is also the center of religion as where situates the Cathedral of the Diocese of Naval that covers the entire province and some other 5 municipalities of the Leyte island.
Naval is also an agricultural town with rice as the primary product. With its vast rice fields, the local produce is much more than enough of the demand for local consumption. Copra is also abundant in the locality, but with the absence of a local processing plant, this product has yet be send to the nearby cities of Tacloban and Cebu. Horticulture is also now an emerging business in Naval as the demand is significantly increasing. Enhancement on the production of the high valued crops has now being initiated.
The locality is noticeably at paced with the present trends for having boon with the available communication facilities. There are two cable TV operators providing broadcast of updated information to the townsfolk and also have one FM Station in radio. The present times inevitability of mobile/cellular telephone services are being provided by the SMART and Globe Telecoms, while landline telephone service is provided by Globelines/Islacom. For added convenience, public calling stations and telephone booths are also present as provided by the PLDT, BayanTel and SmartLink communications distributed strategically within the poblacion area. Internet cafes are also available in the town proper that virtually accesses to almost all corners of the globe through the information superhighway.
With the rich and abundant pristine tourist spots of the different areas of the island province, Naval plays a very important role on the local tourism industry. The locality primarily caters the services for inns, dining cafes and restaurants, transportation, shopping, entertainment and on some other tourist/visitors needs.
Whole year round, major festivities in Naval have its kickoff by celebrating the municipal fiesta in every last Thursday and Friday of January. This will be succeeded by the Diocesan Anniversary highlighting religious celebrations on every 8th of March, then follows the �Biliran Provincehood� Anniversary on every May 11 which usually pre-celebrated by a weeklong activities that has to be participated by all of the component municipalities. Similarly, the town also celebrates its identity of self-government through the �Pueblo Day� on every 23rd of September as reckoned back during the time of Spanish occupancy based on the documented declaration being Naval as an independent town(pueblo). Finally, on every first Sunday of October, is the revived celebration of the Religious Fiesta of Naval � the supposed original fiesta of the town that had ceased its celebration for almost half a century being this period then was not the harvest season.
Most importantly, Naval is a very peaceful town with very minimal incidence of crime, and free from any insurgency.