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 of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Provincial Offices (POs) of the Cordillera region. Information presented included births registered for the year 2012 to 2021. Figures presented herein are still preliminary and may differ in the final counts.

Total Registered Births

• The number of registered live births in the Cordillera Administrative Region for the year 2021 recorded a total of 30,547, an increase of 16.4 percent compared from the previous year’s  26,239 registered births.
• Since 2012, a declining trend can be seen in 2021 despite shift changes in 2018 and 2021.
• On the average, there were 84 babies born per day which translates to 7 babies every two hours, as compared to 8 babies in 2012 and 2013.

Figure 1. Number of Registered Live Births: CAR, 2012 -2021

9 out of 20 Registered Births were born born out of wedlock in CAR

•  Among the Provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Benguet recorded the highest occurrences of registered live births in 2021 with 11,962, followed by Kalinga  with 5,330.
• The least number of registered live births was recorded in Mt Province with 3,026.
• 9 out of 20 of the total registered live births in CAR were born out of wedlock.
• The three provinces that recorded the highest percentage of illegitimate children born in 2021 were Abra with 63.98%, Apayao with 57.24% and Kalinga with 51.69%.

Figure 2. Number of Registered Live Births by Place of Occurrence and by Legitimacy Status: CAR, 2021

 Most Birth Occurred in September

•  In 2021, most registered births in the Cordillera Administrative Region occurred in the month of September with 2,974. It was followed by the months of October, December and November with 2,860, 2,846 and 2,809 registered live births respectively.
• The month of February had the least number of births at 1,916 in 2021.

Figure 3. Registered Live Births by Month: CAR, 2021

More male babies are born than female

• Male babies recorded a total of 15,798 contributing 52 percent share to the total live births in the region, while there were there were 14,749 female babies born in 2021. This resulted in a sex ratio of 107 men per 100 females.

Figure 4. Percentage of Live Births by Sex:CAR, 2021

Physicians most preferred Attendant at Birth in the Region

•  Eighty two percent or 25,052 births are medically attended for the year 2021. Medically attended births are those attended by Physicians, Nurses, and Midwives which indicates  the quality of mother and child health care services in the region.
•  Physicians were the most common birth attendants, accounting for 15,011 or 49.1 percent of all live births in CAR. Midwives followed with 9,501 and nurse with 540 live births registered.

Figure 5. Percentage of Registered Live Births by Attendant at Birth: CAR,  2021

Most Mothers gave Birth at Ages 25-29 years old

•  Babies born to adolescent mothers (2,567) were three times more than those sired by adolescent father (756).
• Babies born to mothers aged less than 15 were 13 times more than those sired by fathers of the same age group.
• Fathers and mothers aged 25-29 had the most number of recorded births.

Table 1. Number of Live Births by Age Group of Father and Mother: CAR, 2021

1 out of 10 Babies Born with Low Birth Weight

• Birth weight is the body weight of a baby at its birth. Low birth weight is defined by the World Health Organization as birth weight of an infant of 2499 grams or less regardless of gestational age.
• Of the total number of newborn babies, 80.7% are above the defined low birth weight.
• About four in ten babies weigh 3000-3499. 
• 1 out of 10 babies are born with low birth weight .

Figure 6. Number of Live Births by Weight: CAR, 2021