Greater Manila Area

Map of the Philippines showing the Greater Manila Area. Maroon is Manila, and red is Metro Manila aside from Manila. Blue is the built up area of cities and municipalities outside Metro Manila that are contiguous with each other and Metro Manila, while light blue is the built up area outside the contiguous area of Metro Manila and the built up area surrounding it.

The Greater Manila Area generally refers to the contiguous urbanization surrounding Metro Manila, and ambiguously there are several terms.

Definitions

Greater Manila Area may describe:

• Metro Manila, a first-level administrative unit of Philippines under the governance of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, considered the core of the greater metro area.
• A term in common usage, Mega Manila, is used to describe a region that is bound to Manila economically. There are 2 definitions. Both terms are based on administrative divisions (entire provinces) that encompass wide ranges of settlements and/or rural areas and do not take into account huge differences among localities.
• The built-up area surrounding Manila, which is constantly being developed. (It can be seen by air or satellite and does not fit neatly into provinces, or even city limits). To disambiguate from the two above terms which are in common use, it may be deemed Greater Manila Area. This article is about this contiguous built-up zone. The built-up zone covers Metro Manila as well as parts of the neighboring provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Batangas, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. Though sprawl continues to absorb new zones, some urban zones (notably Angeles and San Fernando of Pampanga) are independent clusters of settlements surrounded by non-urban areas; Manila's belt of urbanization has yet to absorb them.

Province-level data

Of the above-mentioned provinces, there are stark development contrasts ranging from dense suburban to rural areas within a province.

Overall, the density of provinces around Metro Manila is far higher than the national average. Cavite and Batangas, for example, is 1,888.9 per square km or 6.17 times the national average. Similarly, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija all have population density over twice the national average of 306 per square km. The sum total population of these provinces ignoring finer details of locality data, is about 25.5 million using 2010 census figures.

Population densities of Batangas localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red, 950-1000 in brown

Population densities of Cavite localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red, 950-1000 in brown

Population densities of Bulacan localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red, 950-1000 in brown

Population densities of Pampanga localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red

Population densities of Laguna localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red

Population densities of Rizal localities, 1,000 people/km2 or more in red

Table 1

Localities which have at least 1,000 people per square kilometer and are in a contiguous 1,000+ people/km2 density zone with Metro Manila:

Notes:

• This city is included because its current population is projected to exceed 1,000 people per square km and completely surrounded by localities that match these criteria, as well as possibility of an undercount.
• Localities densities of 1,000 people/km2 in a contiguous 1,000+ people/km2 density zone with Metro Manila

Table 2

Localities not contiguous with Metro Manila's 1000+ people/km2 density zone, but with a density over 1000:

See also

• Mega Manila
• Urban Luzon

References