Pangasinan

Pangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the western area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf and South China Sea. It has a total land area of 5,368.82 square kilometers (3336.030 sq mi). According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 2,645,395 people in 477,819 households. The total population is projected to rise to 3,039,500 in 2010. According to the 2007 Philippine general elections, Pangasinan has a voting population of 1,360,807, which is the second highest in the Philippines.

Pangasinan is the name for the province, the people, and the primary language spoken in the province. Indigenous Pangasinan speakers are estimated to number at least 1.5 million. The Pangasinan language is one of the officially recognized regional languages in the Philippines. Pangasinan is spoken as a second-language by many of the ethnic minorities in Pangasinan. The most significant minority ethnic groups in Pangasinan are the Ilocano, Bolinao, and Tagalog.

The name Pangasinan means "land of salt" or "place of salt-making"; it is derived from the prefix pang, meaning "for", the root word asin, meaning "salt”, and suffix an, signifying "location." The province is a major producer of salt in the Philippines. Dagupan City is known for its bangus or "milkfish" festival, named after the fish that has made the city famous.

A kingdom called Luyag na Kaboloan existed in ancient Pangasinan before the Spanish conquest that began in the 15th century. The ancient Pangasinan people were skilled navigators and the maritime trade network that once flourished in ancient Southeast Asia connected Pangasinan with other peoples of Southeast Asia, India, China, and the Pacific.

Pangasinan occupies a strategic geo-political position in the central plain of Luzon, known as the rice granary of the Philippines. Pangasinan has been described as a gateway to northern Luzon and as the heartland of the Philippines.