Know the Population of 22 Batangas Towns in 1877

An 1895 book entitled “Batangas y su Provincia¹” (Batangas and its Province) paints a compelling picture of the province far from the congested place modernity has turned it into in the present day. Written by the Spanish historian Manuel Sastron, the books gives contemporary readers a vivid glimpse of an era when Batangas was lush with forests and vegetation and towns and villages were not just sparsely populated but also relatively isolated from each other.

At the time of the book’s publication, Batangas had 22 “pueblos” or towns: Balayang, Batangas, Bauang, Calaca, Calatagan, Cuenca, Ibaan, Lemery, Lian, Lobo, Nasugbu, Rosario, San Jose, San Juan de Bocboc, San Luis, Santo Tomas, Taal, Talisay, Tanauan, Taysan, Tuy and Villa de Lipa.

In the present day, the province has three cities (Batangas, Lipa and Tanauan) and thirty-one municipalities. Agoncillo separated from Lemery in 1949; Alitagtag from Bauan in 1909; Balete from Lipa in 1969; Laurel from Talisay also in 1969; Mabini from Bauan in 1918; Malvar from Lipa in 1918; Mataasnakahoy also from Lipa in 1932; Padre Garcia from Rosario in 1949; San Nicolas from Taal in 1955; San Pascual from Bauan in 1969; Santa Teresita from Taal, San Luis and San Nicolas in 1961; and Tingloy from Bauan in 1955².

Image credit:  University of Michigan Digital Collections.

In his book, Sastron wrote, “Se cornpone la provincia de veintidos pueblos, y el nurnero de sus habitantes segun el ultimo padron general, es el de 314,600.” (Roughly, the province has 22 towns, and the number of inhabitants according to the last general census is 314,600.)

From the records of the National Statistical Coordinating Board, now the Philippine Statistics Authority, the census that Sastron referred to was likely the one undertaken by the Spanish colonial government in 1887³. The numbers provided by Sastron were probably to be taken with a grain of salt. Conducting censuses in the nineteenth century would not have been as thorough and efficient as they are done in the present day.

He also provided population counts for each of the 22 pueblos, which when aggregated is 5,234 more than the province’s total population that he himself provided. On the other hand, Sastron and those who undertook the census did not have the luxury of MS Excel tables and formulae.

Nonetheless, the numbers still make for fascinating reading, especially in comparison to present day figures. For instance, the total provincial population as per the 2015 census was placed at 2,377,395. This is a staggering 643% increase over the 1887 figure!

Here are the 1887 population figures for the 22 pueblos of Batangas:

Census	1887	2015
Villa de Lipa (included Malvar & Mataasnakahoy in 1887)	40,000	332,386
Bauan (included Alitagtag, Mabini & San Pascual in 1887)	36,727	91,297
Batangas City	32,101	329,874
Taal (included San Nicolas in 1887)	26,700	56,327
Tanauan	22,000	173,366
Balayan	19,000	90,699
Lemery (included Agoncillo in 1887)	17,867	93,157
Rosario (included Padre Garcia in 1887)	13,500	116,764
Calaca	12,207	81,859
Santo Tomas	11,329	179,844
San Juan de Bocboc	10,549	108,585
Tuy	10,450	43,743
San Jose	10,000	76,971
Ibaan	8,712	52,970
Nasugbu	7,893	134,113
Talisay (included Laurel in 1887)	7,596	45,301
Taysan	7,074	38,007
Lobo	6,700	41,504
Cuenca	6,624	32,783
San Luis (included parts of Sta. Teresita in 1887)	6,543	33,149
Lian	4,023	52,660
Calatagan	2,239	56,449

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