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 in the 4^th quarter 2021 and in 4^th quarter 2020. Figures presented herein are still preliminary and may differ in the final counts.

Number of registered live births shows an increase of 7.1 percent

• The number of registered live births in the Cordillera Administrative Region for the 4^th quarter 2021 recorded a total of 8,569, an increase  of 7.1 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
• Among the Provinces,  Benguet  recorded the highest occurence of registered live births in the  4^th quarter  2021 with 1,630, followed by Kalinga with 1,504, Abra at 1,075 and Apayao with 1,005 registered live births.
• Mt Province recorded the least number of live births among the provinces with 814.
• All Provinces posted  an increase  in the registered live births from this quarter as compared to the same quarter of last year.
• On the average, there were 93 babies born daily or about 4 babies born per hour in the Region.

Table 1. Number and Daily Average of Registered Live Births: 4^th Quarter 2020 and 4^th Quarter 2021

Cities/Municipalities with highest registered live births

• Among the cities/municipalities in the Region,  Baguio City had the highest registered live births with a  total of 1,576,  followed by Tabuk City, Kalinga with 983 registered live births.
• For the 4^th quarter of 2021, La Trinidad, Benguet topped the municipalities with the most number of birth registration with 941. It was followed by registered births of 672 in Bangued, Abra, 536 in Luna, Apayao, 386 in Bauko, Mt Province, 286 in Lamut, Ifugao, 197 in Conner, Apayao, 176 in Buguias, Benguet, 171 in Alfonsa Lista, Ifugao, 166 in Pinukpuk, Kalinga and 125 in Lagawe, Ifugao.

Figure 1. Cities/Municipalities with Most Registered Live Births, October - December 2021

More male babies are born than female

• A total of 4,388 male babies were registered, contributing 51.20 percent share to the total births in the region, while 4,181 females were recorded in the 4^th quarter of 2021. This resulted to a sex ratio of 104 males per 100 females  for the said quarter.

Figure 2. Number of Live Births by Sex: October –December 2021

Physicians most preferred Attendant at Birth in the Region

• Eighty four (84) percent or 7,199 births are medically attended for the 4^th quarter of 2021. Medically attended births are those attended by Physicians, Nurses, and Midwives. There were a total of 7,783 registered live births that were attended by Health Practitioners, such as Physicians, Midwives, Nurse and hilot/unlicensed midwives.
• Physicians topped the list of attendants at birth with 4,593 or 53.6 percent registered live births.
• Midwives followed with 2,444 registered live births, hilot/unlicensed midwives with 584 while nurses attended to 162 registered live births.

Most Mothers gave Birth at Ages 25-29 years old

• Nearly 26 out of every 100 babies in the Region were mostly born to mothers aged 25-29.
• 8,032  or 93.7 percent of babies were born to mothers of the childbearing age of 15-49.
• There were 742 babies born to teenage mothers nearly 9 percent of all births in CAR.
• 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: October - December 2021