The population of Quirino, as of May 1, 2000, stood at 148,575 persons. This was higher by 34,443 persons (30.2 percent) ten years ago or almost threefold after becoming a province in 1971. During the eighties, the population grew at the rate of 3.21 percent annually. The rate declined to 2.63 percent from 1990 to 1995 and to 2.71 percent from 1995 to 2000. If the current rate continues, the population of Quirino was expected to double in about 26 years.

The number of households rose to 30,581 in 2000, higher by 4,153 households from 1995. The average household size declined to 4.86 persons from 5.2 in 1990 and 5.0 in 1995. This was slightly lower than the national average of five persons.

Among the six municipalities in the province, Diffun registered the largest population at 39,489 persons. It accounted for 26.58 percent of the total population of the province. Maddela followed with 32,236 persons (21.70 percent). Cabarroguis, the capital of the province, registered the third largest population (25,832 persons or 17.39 percent). These three (3) municipalities combined comprised 65.7 percent of the province's total population. Saguday and Nagtipunan had the least population with less than 12 percent each of the total.

Quirino was the second least populous province in Cagayan Valley, contributing only 5.28 percent to the 2.8 million population of the region and a mere 0.19 percent to the total Philippine population of 76.5 million as recorded in the Census 2000.

Quirino had young population with a median age of 20 years. Males outnumbered females with a sex ratio of 106 males for every 100 females. However, in the age group 65 years and over, the females dominated their male counterparts.

In 2000, the population aged 0 to14 years made up 37.7 percent of the total population while those aged 65 years and above comprised 3.4 percent. Thus, the economically active population, aged 15 to 64 years, was 58.81 percent of the total population in Quirino.

The overall dependency ratio in 2000 was 70. This meant that for every 100 persons aged 15 to 64 years, there were about 70 dependents (64 persons aged 0 to 14 years - young dependents; and six persons aged 65 years and over - old dependents), an improvement of 6.4 percentage points over the 76.4 ratio reported in 1995.

Of the total household population five years old and over, almost half (48.2 percent) had attended or completed elementary education. Twenty seven percent had either attended or finished high school while 8.0 percent had attended college. Only 2.6 percent were academic degree holders. More than half of those who had attended or finished elementary education (53.7 percent) were males. On the other hand, those who had attended or finished higher education such as post secondary, college and post baccalaureate were predominantly females.

About 72 percent of the household population in Quirino classified themselves as Ilocano while 15.27 percent considered themselves as Ifugao. The remaining 12.7 percent were either Kankanaey, Tagalog, or other ethnic groups.

Half (50.1 percent) of the population 10 years old and above were married while 42.93 percent were single. The remaining seven percent were either widowed, divorced/separated, common-law/live-in or with unknown marital status.

Out of 148,515 household population of the province, only 1,585 persons (1.1 percent) were reported to have some types of disability. Among the disabled, persons with low vision constituted the highest proportion (23.28 percent) followed by those with oral defect (9.40 percent) and partial blindness (8.64 percent).

Of the 31,024 housing units in Quirino, 30,240 were occupied (97.47 percent). Of the total occupied housing units, 97.26 percent were single houses. This registered a ratio of 1.01 household per housing unit and 4.9 persons per occupied housing unit.

Table 1. Total Population by Municipality and Sex: Quirino, 2000

Table 2. Total Population by Age Group, Sex and Sex Ratio: Quirino, 2000

Table 3. Household Population 5 Years Old and Over by Highest Educational Attainment
and Sex: Quirino, 2000

Table 4. Household Population by Ethnicity and Sex: Mountain Province, 2000

Table 5. Total Population 10 Years old and Over by Age Group and Marital status: Quirino, 2000

Table 6. Total Occupied Housing Units, Households, Household Population and Ratio of Household and Household Population to Occupied Housing Unit by Type of Building: Quirino, 2000

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