The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) conducted the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (2020 CPH) in September 2020, with 01 May 2020 as reference date.

The 2020 CPH was the 15th census of population and 7th census of housing that was undertaken in the Philippines since the first census in 1903. It was designed to take an inventory of the total population and housing units in the country and collect information about their characteristics.

The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) as of March 2022 was used for the disaggregation of geographic levels of the 2020 CPH.

440 thousand households speak Ilocano as their primary language

According to the 2020 Census of Housing and Population (2020 CPH), there were 439,149 households recorded in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Out of this total, there were 41.3% or 181,577 households stated that they spoke Ilocano at home the most frequently. 

Kankanaey was the second most commonly spoken language at home with 59,150 households (13.5%), followed by Tagalog with 55,710 households (12.7%), Kalinga with 27,022 households (6.2%), Ibaloi/Ibaloy with 20,202 households (4.6%), Tuwali with 16, 212 households (3.7%), Ayangan with 13,740 households (3.1%), Kalanguya with 8,900 households (2.0%), Isnag with 7,945 households (1.8%), and Applai with 6,996 households (1.6%) (Table 1).

Table 1. Ten Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, CAR: 2020

3 out of every 4 households speak Ilocano in Abra

Ilocano speakers accounted for the largest percentage of households in the province of Abra, with 75.5% of all households speaking Ilocano at home. Itneg/Tinguian-Maeng came in second with a 5.2% share, followed by Itneg/Tinguian-Masadiit in third place with 3.6%. Itneg/Tinguian-Adasen reported the fourth-highest percentage with 3.1%, followed by Itneg/Tinguian-Inlaud with 2.3% (Table 2).

Table 2. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Abra: 2020

3 out of every 5 households speak Ilocano in Apayao

It was reported that Ilocano was the primary language spoken in 61.2% (17,673) of the households in Apayao. Conversely, 7,939 households, or 27.5%, stated that Isnag was their primary language. Malaueg came in third with 3.7% (1,077 households), Kalinga comes in fourth with 2.4% (687 households), and Tagalog came in fifth with 1.2% (332 households) (Table 3).

 
Table 3. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Apayao: 2020

3 out of every 5 households speak Kankanaey in Benguet

In Benguet, Kankanaey was reported to be the primary language spoken in 36.3% (42,333) of the households. Nevertheless, Ilocano was stated as the primary language in 33.9% (39,527) of the households. With 19,227 households, Ibaloi/Ibaloy came third place with 16.5%, followed by Tagalog (8,532 households) with 7.3%, and Kalanguya with 2.9% (3,365 households) (Table 4).

Table 4. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Benguet: 2020

Tagalog is predominant language in Baguio City households

It was revealed that in 44,623 households (44.5%) in Baguio City, Tagalog was the household language. The primary language in 44,172 households (44.1%), however, was reported to be Ilocano. Kankanaey ranks third with 4.3% or 4,311 households, followed by English with 1,892 households (1.9%) and Pangasinan in fifth position with 968 households (1.0%) (Table 5).

 
Table 5. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Baguio: 2020 

Ifugao households predominantly speak Ilocano

According to reports, 32.3% of the households (15,739) in Ifugao spoke Tuwali as their primary language. In contrast, 27.9% of households, or 13,598 households, reported that Ayangan was their primary language. Third-place Ilocano has 19.6% share (9,566 households), fourth-place Kalanguya has 11.2% share (5,473 households), and fifth-place Ayangan-Henanga has 4.4% share (2,128 households). (Table 6)

Table 6. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Ifugao: 2020

Kalinga language is most common in Kalinga

Kalinga was reported to be the major language spoken in 52.4% (25,178) of Kalinga households. However, Ilocano was the major language of 21,149 households (44.0%). Third place goes to Tagalog with 1.6% (780 households), followed by Baliwon with 0.32% (153 households) and Sinadanga with 0.3% (146 households). (Table 7)

Table 7. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Kalinga: 2020

Households in Mountain Province mostly speak Kankanaey

Mountain Province households stated that 11,777 households (31.3%) spoke Kankanaey as their native language. Secondly, 6,744 households, or 17.9%, reported that their primary language was Applai. With 14.6% (5,475 households), Bontok came third, followed by Ilocano with 13.3% or 4,989 households and Balangao with 6.7% or 2,535 households (Table 8).

Table 8. Five Leading Languages/Dialects Generally Spoken at Home, Mountain Province: 2020

(SGD)
VILLAFE P. ALIBUYOG
Regional Director
PSA-RSSO CAR

Technical Notes

Method of Enumeration 
The population and housing censuses in the Philippines are conducted on a “de jure” basis, wherein a person is counted in the usual place of residence or the place where the person usually resides. The enumeration of the population and collection of pertinent data in the 2020 CPH referred to all living persons as of 01 May 2020.  

Household
A social unit consists of a person or a group of persons who sleep in the same housing unit and have a common arrangement in preparing and consuming food.

Language/dialect generally spoken at home refers to the language or dialect generally used or spoken by the members of the household most of the time at home. It provides a measure of the linguistic homogeneity or difference in the population. Specifically, it measures the extent of the actual use of a language/dialect within a household. The Philippines' official languages are Filipino and English.