PROFILE: Demography

Population

Based on the 1995 census of population, Pandan has a population of 24,978 with an annual average growth rate of 0.89 percent between 1990-1995. There are 5,029 household with an average of number of five (5) persons per household. The projected household based on projected population for the year 2010 is 5,706 with a projected increase of 677 over the 1995 number of household.

Of the 34 barangays comprising the municipality, seven (7) are upland/hinterland barangays and 27 are lowland. Four out of the 34 barangays are classified as urban barangays namely Centro Sur, Centro Norte, Carmen and Baybay. Urban population accounts 13 percent and the remainder constitutes the rural population.

Population density in urban Pandan is 1,873 persons per km2 while rural population density is 196 persons per square kilometer. This scenario is expected to happen because urban barangays have more economic opportunities to offer.

Of the total population of 24,978 (1990 CPH) 50.82 percent or 12,693 are male and 49.18 percent or 12,285 are female which could be interpreted that there are 103 males for every 100 females. This ratio is higher compared to provincial data of 1.02:1.00 and lower than the national ratio of 1.04:1.00 male to female ratio.

Based on the 1995 data, the total dependents of the municipality represented 42 percent while the working group is 58 percent. This means that each working individual will support an average of 1.4 heads as dependent.

Mother Tongue

The mother tongue of Pandan is Kinaray-a. This is the widely spoken dialect in the municipality, 88.77 percent speak Kinaray-a (Pandan-karay-a/Pandaray-a/Binisayang Pandan), followed by 6.14 percent speaking Aklanon and 1.83 percent speaking Tagalog. It was observed that Aklanon was mostly spoken by the population in the upland barangays of the municipality since they are accessible to Ibajay, a municipality of Aklan. In addition, since Pandan is accessible to Kalibo, another municipality of Aklan and the trade center of Aklan which is only 54 kilometers away, the population usually go shopping and take their college education in this municipality, thus they were influenced by the dialect.

Religious Affiliations of the Population

Like all other places in the Philippines, religion came to Pandan with the Spanish Conquestadores. Roman Catholic grew in number as the population increases. As of 1990 Census of population, Roman Catholic ranks first with 78.68 percent, followed by the Iglesia Filipina Independiente or the Aglipayan Church with 17.80 percent. There are only 1.48 percent who are Seventh Day Adventist and 0.99 percent Iglesia ni Kristo. At least 9 more religious affiliations of the population are existing in Pandan.