Mega Manila - Definitions

Definitions

Mega Manila, as a loose metropolitan defined by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), is divided into the national capital region (Metro Manila) and the suburbs of regions 3 (Central Luzon) and 4 (CALABARZON and MIMAROPA). Mega Manila's 2010 population is projected at 35,607,000, or 37.8% of the country's population, and covers roughly half of Luzon, about 50,000 square km. Of course, this definition includes many rural areas.

TV ratings agency AGB Nielsen Philippines and Kantar Media considers only Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal as "Mega Manila" for their TV audience ratings gathering (maroon on the map), a much stricter definition than the PIA. Using 2010 census projection figures the maroon area has a population of 25,066,000 or about 26.6% of the population in an area roughly the size of Los Angeles County and average density over 2000 people per square km.

For a similar areal extent definition of metropolitan area, in the world only the cities of Tokyo, Jakarta, and Mexico City have reached 25 million people, Shanghai may have but there is not enough detail in suburban statistics there. Not-continuously-built-up areas scattered in this defined region in total occupy less than a third of the regional land area, and negligible population. This area has a higher ownership of televisions per household anywhere in the country due to its relative economic prosperity as compared to other places in the Philippines. Radio ratings agency Radio Research Council (provided by KBP) also provide measurement of audience ratings.

Continuous suburban sprawl as seen from a clear night sky on an airplane would be closest to the TV ratings definition but some of the sprawl would also be in Batangas, this province included would push the population (using above source) to about 27.3 million including some non built-up or not-continuously built-up areas.