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

• Senior citizens made up 9.7 percent of the municipality’s household population. Senior citizens defined as individuals belonging to the age group 60 years and over. Senior citizens made up the 8.3 percent (1,616) as shown in Table 1. It is 15.2 percent (213) higher compared to the 2010 population of elders.
• Among the barangays, the highest number of elders was in Poblacion with 25.1 percent, followed by Bayabas with 24.7 percent, and Banangan with 13.7 percent. Meanwhile, Balluay had the least percentage of elders with 5.0.
• In terms of proportion of senior citizens to the household population, Bagong posted the highest at 12.8 percent, followed by Bayabas at 11.2 percent. Both proportions were higher than the municipal level of 9.7 percent.
• Barangay Kamog had the least proportion of senior citizens to the household population with 7.2 percent.

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

Female senior citizens outnumber males

• Of the total senior citizens in the municipality of Sablan, 599 were females while 512 were males.
• Female senior citizens outnumbered males in all age groups except the age group of 65-69 with the biggest gap on those who are 75-79 years old.
• The number of senior citizens decreases as age increases. About 34.7 percent (386) of the elders belongs to age group 60-64 years old, 23.9 percent (265) belongs to 65-69 years old, 14.1 percent (157) were 70-74 years old, 11.5 percent (128) were 75-79 years old and 15.8 percent (175) were 80 years old and above.

Majority of senior citizens are married

• Of the total household population aged 60 years and over in the municipality, 56.8 percent (631) were married and 32.1 percent (357) were widowed.
• A relatively small proportion of seniors were divorced or separated with 2.3 percent (25).
• There were only 9 senior citizens with status of common-law or live-in, representing 0.8 percent of the total number of senior citizens in Sablan.

Few of the seniors are academic degree holder

• Only 67 senior citizens in the municipality of Sablan were academic degree holder.

• Mostly 338 or 30.4% of the senior citizens finished elementary graduate followed by primary undergraduate with 313 (28.1%). There were 93 (8.4%) senior citizens who did not finish any level of education and most of them is female.
• Male elders exceeded the number of female graduates in high school but not in academic degree holder. There were 39 females with academic degree holder and only 28 males.

Nine in every ten elders can read and write simple message

• Simple literacy rate of elders in the municipality of Sablan when compared to household population was 92.7 percent (1,030) as shown in Figure 4. The remaining 7.3 percent (81) cannot able to read and write a simple message.

Mostly of the senior are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers

• Mostly (29.2% or 324) of the senior citizens in Sablan were skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers, followed by seniors engaged in elementary occupations with 12.0 percent (133).
• There were 534 (48.1%) 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.
• Bayabas posted the highest number of seniors engaged in skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers and elementary occupations.

There are still 66 seniors that is unregistered in Sablan

• The percentage of senior citizens whose birth was registered is 97.7 (1,086) while 1.3 percent (14) was unregistered and 1.0 percent (11) was unknown.