Metro Manila remains the richest region

Metro Manila, or the National Capital Region, remains the richest region in the Philippines as its per capita income is more than three times the national average, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The PSA said that in 2018, NCR continued to account for the largest share of the country’s gross domestic product at 36 percent. It was followed by Calabarzon with a share of 17 percent and Central Luzon with a share of 9.8 percent.

NCR grew 4.8 percent in 2018, slightly slower than the national average of 6.2 percent.

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“NCR had the highest per capita GRDP, which was nearly three times the national average,” the PSA said.

NCR also posted the highest per capita index relative to the national average at 294.0 in 2018, followed by Calabarzon at 121.2 and Cordillera Administrative Region at 101.6. All other regions had indices lower than the national average.

At current prices, the per capita gross regional domestic product in NCR was P500,947 in 2018, or three times the national average of P163,475. The closest second was Calabarzon which posted P172,310 in per capita income.

Data show that per capita income in NCR was more than 15 times that of the poorest region—the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which had only P32,220.

Poverty incidence in NCR was 6.6 percent of the population as of the first semester of 2018, compared to the national average of 21 percent.

The underemployment rate in Metro Manila, however, reached 6.3 percent as of April 2019, above the national average of 5.1 percent. Underemployment in the metropolis was much lower at 4.6 percent, compared to the national average of 13.5 percent.

As of June 2019, NCR had 16 cities, 1 municipality and 1,710 barangays.

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It had a total population of 12.877 million, representing 12.8 percent of the Philippine population of 100.981 million as of August 2015.