According to the data generated from the Decentralized Vital Statistics System (DVSS) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Guimaras Provincial Statistical Office, the province of Guimaras registered 4,199 live births in 2023, of which 51.44 percent or 2,160 births were female and 48.56 percent, or 2,039 births were male, with a gender gap of 2.88 percent or a sex ratio of 94 males to every 100 females.

In 2023, there was a notable decline of -9.89 percent in registered live births compared to the previous year, from 4,660 in 2022 to 4,199 in 2023. This reduction is marked by a decrease of 333 registrations in female live births and a corresponding decline of 128 registrants in male live births.

Registered Births by Municipality, Guimaras: 2022 & 2023

In 2022, the town of Jordan was the leading contributor to the provincial total, comprising over half with 61.37 percent or 2,860 registered live births. The municipality of Nueva Valencia came in next with 882 live births, making up 18.93 percent, and Buenavista with 865 live births, contributing 18.56 percent. On the lower end, Sibunag reported the fewest births, totaling 32 and accounting for 0.49 percent, followed by San Lorenzo with 21 live births, representing 0.45 percent of the overall count. See Figure 2.

In 2023, the total registered live births in Guimaras province, based on the usual residence of the mother, reached 4,199. Jordan emerged as the predominant contributor, representing 68.16 percent of the provincial total, equivalent to 2,862 live births. Nueva Valencia followed with 686 births, contributing 16.34 percent, and Buenavista accounted for 14.29 percent with 600 live births. In contrast, San Lorenzo and Sibunag made more modest contributions, each comprising 0.74 and 0.48 percent, respectively. See Figure 3.

San Lorenzo records 47.62% growth on live birth registration in 2023

Two out of five municipalities recorded an uptrend in registered live births, San Lorenzo had the fastest growth of 47.62 percent, followed by Jordan, which had a 0.07 percent increase.

Table 1. Comparative Registered Live Births by Municipality: 2022 & 2023

Registered live births in three (3) municipalities decreased: Sibunag (37.50%), Buenavista (30.64%), and Nueva Valencia (22.22%).

Table 2. Registered Live Births by Municipality, by Sex, Gender Gap, and Sex Ratio: 2023

Of the total 4,199 registered live births in 2023, 51.44 percent were females, equivalent to 2,160 individuals, and 48.56 percent or 2,039 male live births, having a gender gap of 2.88 percent. In three municipalities: Buenavista, Jordan, and Nueva Valencia, females outnumbered the male birth registrants with 3.67 percent, 3.07 percent, and 4.37 percent gender gap, respectively. See Table 2.

Registered births in San Lorenzo and Sibunag, however, are male-dominated with a wide gender gap of 48.39 percent and 20.00 percent, respectively, reflected in the sex ratios of 288 males for every 100 females in San Lorenzo and 150 males per 100 females in Sibunag.

Table 3. Registered Live Births by Municipality, by Sex, Gender Gap, and Sex Ratio: 2022

Compared to 2022, registered live births in Guimaras continued to exhibit a female dominance, with a recorded gender gap of 7.00 percent. Three out of five municipalities registered more female live births than males, as outlined in Table 3.

Among the municipalities with a female majority, Buenavista displayed a wider gender gap of 13.29 percent, resulting in a sex ratio of 77 males per 100 females. Nueva Valencia followed closely with a gender gap of 12.47 percent, translating to a sex ratio of 78 males per 100 female live births. Jordan, also a female-dominated municipality in 2022, recorded a gender gap of 3.57 percent, corresponding to a sex ratio of 93 males per 100 female live births.

San Lorenzo still recorded more male live births than females, with a slim gender gap of 4.76 percent or a sex ratio of 110 males per 100 females. Moreover, Sibunag has an equal number of female and male registrants in 2023.

Registered Live Births by Month of Occurrence   
 

Registered live births by month of occurrence showed that three of the twelve months of 2023 recorded more male live births than females, these were the months of February with a sex ratio of 101 males to every 100 females, May with a recorded sex ratio of 103 males to every 100 females, and 105 males to every 100 female live births in September. See Figure 4

Interestingly, registered live births in nine months of the year were dominated by females.

Figure 5. Monthly Live Registered Births, Both Sexes, Guimaras: 2023

On a monthly registration (both sexes), the highest number of live births was recorded in March 2023, with 405 registrants, while the lowest was in July 2023 with 298 recorded live births. See Figure 5

TECHNICAL NOTES

Vital Statistics – are derived from information obtained at the time when the occurrences of vital events and their characteristics are inscribed in civil register. Vital acts and events are the birth, death and marriages, and all such events that have something to do with an individual’s entrance and departure from life together with the changes in civil status that may occur to a person during his lifetime. Recording of these events in the civil register is known as a vital or civil registration and the resulting documents are vital records.

Live Birth – is a complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life, such as the beating of heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached, each product of such a birth is considered live born.