NORTHERN MINDANAODemographic,

Bukidnon was once a subprovince of Misamis in 1901 and later annexed to Agusan in 1907. It was created as a separate province in 1914.

Bukidnon is bounded by Misamis Oriental on the north and northwest, Agusan del Sur and Davao on the east, North Cotabato on the south; and Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur on the west. It has a land area of 8,293.8 square kilometers which makes it the second largest province in Region 10 and eight largest in the country.

Bukidnon means "people of the mountains." It refers to the tribe originally occupying the province who were pushed back to the interior with the arrival of the Moslems in the sixteenth century. Later, several groups of migrants settled in the province, making it a "melting pot" of different peoples. Manobos, Moslems, Visayans, Tagalog, and Ilocanos settled permanently in the place.

Bukidnon, the top producer of pineapple in the country, is composed of 22 municipalities broken down into 464 barangays as of 1990. Impasug-ong is the biggest municipality with a land area of 1,007.9 sq. kms. while Maramag is the smallest with a land area of only 69.8 sq. kms. Malaybalay serves as the provincial capital and has a land area of 895.0 sq. kms.

PYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Topographic and Hydrological features

The province is predominantly a rolling tableland of grass with an average elevation of 915 meters. Its terrain is characterized by low plains alternating with rolling uplands, deep canyons and valleys. Nine mountains, some of which are dormant volcanoes, rise amidst these plateaus. Mt. Kitanlad has a slope gradient that peaks at 2,350 meters and occupied the central portion. In its southern portion, Mr. Kalatungan and Mr. Tankulan rise to heights of 2,187 meters and 1,678 meters respectively. The Cagayan, Tagoloan, and Pulangi rivers drain the province. Of the three, only Pulangi is navigable.

Land Classification

The province has a total land area of 829,378 hectares. As of 1993, 493.4 thousand hectares were forested land, and 336 thousand hectares were certified alienable and disposable land. About 86.8 percent of the classified forest land was established timberland, 11.2 percent was estalished forest reserve, and 2 percent was fishpond.

Climate

Records on climatological normals show that the province had 220 rainy days for the whole year of 1993. July had the highest number of rainy days (28 days) while April (10 days) had the least number of rainy days. Rainful is unevenly distributed throughout the year ranging from 58.4 millimeters in January to 456 millimeters in July.

The 1993 mean temperature was 24.2 degrees Centigrade. The coldest month of the year was March with a minimum temperature of 16.9 degrees Centigrade and the hottest month was May with a maximum temperature of 31.8 degrees Centigrade.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Population

The 1990 Census of Population and Housing showed that Bukidnon has a total population of 843,891 persons, an increase of 33.6 percent from 1980. This figure made the province as the 25th among the 73 provinces.

Density

In 1990, the population density of the province was 101.75 persons for every square kilometer.

Censal Year	Population	Growth Rate (percent)	Density (per sq. km.)
1903	21,163	--	2.55
1918	46,519	5.39	5.61
1939	57,561	1.02	6.94
1948	63,470	1.09	7.65
1960	194,368	9.78	23.44
1970	414,762	7.87	50.01
1975	532,818	5.14	64.24
1980	631,634	3.46	76.16
1990	843,891	2.94	103.50
1995	940,403	2.05	113.39

Population Growth
Rate

Between the two censal years1980 and 1990, the population of the province has an annual growth rate of 2.94 percent which was lower that the rate between the 1975 and 1980 censuses. This further went down to 2.05 in the 1995 census.

Age-Sex Composition

In 1990, the total household population of the province was 842,269 broken down into 434,110 males and 408,159 females.

Urban-Rural
Population

In 1990, more than two-thirds or 68.6 percent of the population in the province have settled down in rural areas while the remaining 31.4 percent occupied the urban areas.

Marriages

In 1990, population 10 years old and over totalled 572,648. The percentage of married couples decreased by 2.3 percentage points from 53.4 perent in 1980 to 51.1 percent in 1990. Never married persons on the other hand had exhibited an increasing trend posting a 1.8 percentage point increase from 43.7 percent in 1980 to 45.5 percent in 1990. Widowed accounted for 2.8 percent while 0.6 percent was either divorced/separated or status was not determined.

Literacy Rate

In 1990, of the total 572,648 private household population 10 years old and over, 89.6 percent were literate. Of the literates, 51.5 percent were males and 48.5 percent were females. Compared to 1980 results, the 1990 population in 1990 was more literate than in 1980 but the gap between male and female literacy rates closed in.

The literacy rate in the province which was 89.6 percent was lower than the regional level and the national level of 92.9 percent and 93.5 percent, respectively.

Literacy rate for females stood at 90.1 percent, higher than the rate for males recorded at 89.2 percent.

Births

Total live births in 1990 was registered at 26,011. An increase of 2.9 percent from 1989 was noted.

Deaths

Number of deaths increased from 2,296 in 1989 to 2,326 in 1990. It was observed that more male deahts occurred than female deaths.

Marriages

There were 5,112 marriages reported in the province in 1990, posting an increase of 5.5 percent from the 1989 level of 4,844 marriages. Majority took place during the month of January.

Migration

Migrants from Bukidnon totalled 27,286 from 1985 to 1990. Male and female migrants have more or less the same proportion. Majority went to the neigboring province of Misamis Oriental and Bohol.