Data on births presented in this special release were obtained from the Office of the City/Municipal Registrars throughout the region and submitted to the Philippine Statistics Authority - Regional Statistical Services Office Cordillera Administrative Region (PSA-RSSO CAR) through the Decentralized Vital Statistics System (DVSS) 2021 and 2022 of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Provincial Offices (POs) of the Cordillera  region. Information presented included births registered in the 1st quarter 2022 and in 1st quarter 2021. Figures presented herein are still preliminary and may differ in the final counts.

An Average of 4 Babies Born per Hour in the Region

• The Cordillera Administrative Region registered live births of 8,517 for the 1^st quarter of 2022, an increase of 25.32 percent compared to the same quarter of last year with 6,796 births registered.
• On the average, almost 95 babies were born daily or about 4 babies born per hour in the Region.
• All provinces reported an increase in the number of recorded live births compared to the same quarter last year. The largest percentage upsurge was 63.4 percent in Mt Province. Kalinga placed second with 40.4 percent, followed by Ifugao with 36 percent.   Baguio City, on the other hand, had the smallest increase of 6.7 percent.
• In the first quarter of 2022, Benguet was first in terms of the number of registered live births with 1,644 or 19.3 percent, followed by Kalinga with 1,411, Baguio City with 1,379, Ifugao with 1,089,  Abra with 1,057, Mt Province with 1,008 and Apayao with the least number of registered live births at  929.
• For the same time period in 2021, the province of Benguet posted the highest registered live births in the Region with 1,439 or 21.2 percent, followed by Baguio City with 1,293 or 19 percent. Mt Province had the lowest number of registered live births with 617 or 9 percent.

Table 1. Number and Daily Average of Registered Live Births: CAR

1^st Quarter 2022 and 1^st Quarter 2021

Baguio City had the Highest Registered Live Births in CAR

• Among the cities in the Cordillera Administrative Region,  Baguio City had the highest registered live births with a  total of 1,379,  followed by Tabuk City, Kalinga with 919 registered live births.
• Bangued, Abra topped the municipalities with most number of registered live births in the 1^st quarter of 2022.  Luna, Apayao came next with 499 births, followed by Bauko, Mt Province with 434, then Lagawe and Lamut, Ifugao with 295 and 272 respectively.
• On the other hand, the municipalities of Barlig, Mt Province and Danglas, Abra had the lowest number of registered live births in the 1^st quarter of 2022 with four registered live births each. It was followed by the municipalities of Boliney, San Isidro, and San Quintin in Abra which registered three live births each.

Figure 1. Cities/Municipalities with Most Registered Live Births: CAR

 January – March 2022

23 out of 50 Registered Births were Born out of Wedlock in the Region

• There were a total of 3,930 or 46 percent registered live births in the Region who were born out of wedlock.
•  The Provinces with the highest percentage of illegitimate children born in the 1^st quarter 2022 were Benguet with 32.2 percent, Abra followed with 19.7 percent and Kalinga with 19.6 percent. Meanwhile, Mt Province had the least number of illegitimate children born at 6.9 percent.

Figure 2. Number of Registered Live Births by Place of Occurrence and by Legitimacy: CAR January – March 2022

More than half of babies born in CAR were males

• During the 1^st Quarter of 2022, there were 4,328 male babies registered, contributing 50.8 percent share to the total births in the region, while 4,189 or 49.2 females were recorded. This resulted to a sex ratio of 103 males per 100 females  for the said quarter.
• The Province of Abra posted a sex ratio of 110, higher than the regional ratio. This was followed by Mt Province with 107, and Apayao and Baguio City with the same sex ratio at 103. On the other hand, Kalinga had the lowest sex ratio of 100.

Table 2.  Number of Live Births by Sex and Sex Ratio:  CAR

January – March 2022

Five out of Ten Live Births Attended by Physicians

• There were a total of 6,635 or 78 percent  live births recorded in the Region for the 1^st Quarter of 2022 who were Medically attended. Medically attended are those attended by Physicians, Nurses and Midwives.
• Physicians topped the list of attendants at births with 4,510 or 53 percent registered births. It was followed by Midwives with 23.4 percent, then Nurses at 1.6 percent.

• 1 out of 10 registered live births were attended by tradional birth attendants, which include hilots or unlicensed midwives. While, 1,032 or 12 percent registered births were attended by others.
• Benguet had the highest registered births attended by Medical Practioners at 14 out of 25 live births in the Region.

Table 3. Number of Registered Live Births by Attendant at Birth: CAR

January – March 2022

Most of the Births in CAR born to mothers at Ages 25-29 years old

• In the 1^st quarter of 2022, 1 out of 4 babies in CAR were mostly born to mothers aged 25-29.
• 9 out of 10 babies were born to mothers of the childbearing age of 15-49.
• There were a total of 787 or 9 percent of the registered births in the Region was born to teenage mothers.
• Almost 1 percent out of every 100 babies were born to mothers below 15 years old.

Figure 3. Number of Live Births by Age Bracket of Mothers: CAR

January - March 2022