Senior citizens reach more than a thousand in the Municipality of Kapangan

• Senior citizens defined as individuals belonging to the age group 60 years and over. In 2015, the household population of the municipality of Kapangan reached 19.3 thousand. Senior citizens made up the 12.9 percent (2,497) as shown in Table 1. It is 9.7 percent (221) higher compared to the 2010 population of elders.
• Among the barangays, the highest number of elders was in Taba-ao with 10.5 percent of the senior in the municipality, followed by Datakan with 9.3 percent, and Pudong with 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, Boklaoan had the least of elders with 2.5 percent.
• In terms of proportion of senior citizens to the household population, Cuba posted the highest at 18.1 percent, followed by Cayapes and Paykek with 16.2 and 15.8 percent. These proportions were higher than the Municipality level of 12.9 percent.
• Sagubo had the least proportion of senior citizens to the household population with 9.1 percent.

Table 1. Household Population and Number of Senior Citizens by Barangay: Kapangan, 2015

Female senior citizens outnumber males

• Of the total senior citizens in the municipality, 51.6 percent (1,298) were females while the males were about 48.4 percent (1,208).
• There were more male senior citizens at the age of 60 to 69, however at the age group of 70 to 80 and above, females posted higher than of males with a biggest gap at the age of 75 to 80 and above.
• There were more male senior citizens at the age of 60 to 69, however at the age group of 70 to 80 and above, females posted higher than of males with a biggest gap at the age of 75 to 80 and above.

Majority of senior citizens are married

• Of the total household population aged 60 years and above in the municipality, 54.9 percent (1370) were married and 31.2 percent (780) were widowed.
• A relatively small proportion was reported divorced or separated with 1.2 percent (30).
• There were only 9 senior citizens with status of common-law or live-in, representing 0.4 percent of the total number of senior citizens in Kapangan.

Few of the seniors are academic degree holder

• Only 127 senior citizens in the municipality of Kapangan were academic degree holder.

• Majority of the senior citizens finished primary undergraduate (796 or 31.9%) followed by elementary graduate with 619 (24.8%). There were 379 senior citizens (15.2%) who did not finish any level of education and most of them is female (273 or 72.0%).
• Male elders exceeded the number of female graduates in high school but not in academic degree holder. There were 88 females (69.3%) with academic degree holder and only 39 males (30.7%)

Eight in every ten elders can read and write simple message

• Simple literacy rate of elders in the municipality of Kapangan when compared to household population was 85.7 percent (2,140) as shown in Figure 4. The remaining 14.3 percent (357) cannot able to read and write a simple message. Moreover, literacy rate for males were higher than the females.

Mostly of the senior are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers

• Mostly 32.8 percent (819) of the senior citizens in Kapangan were skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers. This was followed by seniors engaged in elementary occupations with 15.9 percent (397) and 2.9 percent were managers in their own business/farm.
• There were 1,137 (45.5%) seniors who engaged in non-gainful activity (dependent/pensioner/ person with disability).
• In every barangay, almost all elders were skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers.
• Taba-ao posted the highest number of skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers while Pudong had the highest number of seniors engaged in elementary occupations. Poblacion Central had the highest number of managers followed by Paykek.

There are still 187 seniors that is unregistered in Kapangan

• The percentage of senior citizens whose birth was registered is 87.4 (2,183) while 7.5 percent (187) were unregistered and 5.1 percent (127) was unknown.