Geo-physical Characteristics
The Municipality of Gubat is located on the east coast of the Province of Sorsogon. It is the third largest municipality in Sorsogon Province bounded on the North by the Municipality of Prieto Diaz and Bacon District of Sorsogon City, on the South by the Municipality of Barcelona, on the West by Sorsogon City and the Municipality of Casiguran, and on the East by the vast Pacific Ocean.
It is nineteen (19) kilometers from the provincial capital Sorsogon City, eighty one (81) kilometers from the regional center of Legazpi City, and six hundred twenty-one (621) kilometers from Manila. The Municipality lies on the coordinates 12° 55’ 15.63” north latitude, and 124° 07’ 28.66” east longitude.
Gubat comprises forty-two (42) barangays, eight (8) of which are classified as urban and located in the poblacion area, while the rest are classified as rural.
It has 11,116.98 hectares total land area, and a total of 18,980 hectares of municipal waters and coral reef.
Political Subdivision
Gubat is a second-class municipality belonging to the second congressional district of Sorsogon. It has forty-two (42) barangays comprised of eight (8) urban barangays namely:
Meanwhile, the following are the thirty-four (34) rural barangays:
Population and Demographic Profile
Total Population
The result of the CY 2015 census showed that the municipality has already reached 59,534 counts compared to the recorded population of 57,327 in 2010. The current population of the municipality accounts 7.51 percent of the total population of the Province of Sorsogon. This shows that the municipality has a lower growth rate of 0.72 percent compared to the 1.31 percent growth rate of the province. If this trend continues, the population of the municipality is expected to reach 65,824 by year 2029.
Urban-Rural Population
In 2015, the level of urbanization or the percentage of population residing in urban barangays of the municipality is 22.49 percent. This means that a total of 13,388 persons resided in the eight (8) barangays classified as urban. It also shows a decrease in the level of urbanization from 1995, which is 25.15 percent.
The rural population in 2015 comprises 77.51 percent or accounts for 46,146 persons. This is 2.66 percent higher than the rural population in 1995 which is 74.85 percent or 37,211 persons.
While previous records in 1995 census showed that the urbanity movement in the municipality is small, there was a significant increase of rural population or decrease in urbanity movement in the municipality in the year 2015. This could be attributed to the development of new subdivisions in barangays Cogon and San Ignacio, which are both classified as rural barangays.
As per result of the census conducted in 2015, the largest age group population is age group 10-14, which accounts for 11.54 percent followed by age group 15-19 making up 10.84 percent of the total population. Of the total population, 60.16 percent belongs to the working-age population (15 to 64 years). Children below 15 years of age comprises 32.09 percent while older persons with age 65 years and over accounts for 7.75 percent. Data also shows that male slightly outnumbered the females. Of the total population, 50.67 percent is male while 49.33 percent is female.
Population Density
As of 2015, the population density of the municipality stands at 518 per square kilometer, while urban or población barangays remain to have the highest population density with barangay Balud del Norte posting the highest population density of 215.3 per hectare population density
Only Cogon among the 34 rural barangays posted a double-digit population density at 16.6. The remaining 33 barangays have single-digit densities with the following three barangays having the lowest population densities: Nazareno (1.93), Lapinig (1.65), and Dita (1.27).
Average household size in 2015 is 5.37 persons, lower than the average household size of 4.98 persons in 1995. The average household size in rural barangays in 1995 is higher than urban while the values are the same in 2015, with Barangay Dita having the largest household size at 4.43.