Also known as: Navotas, City of Navotas, Lungsod ng Navotas
Navotas City is a highly urbanized city in Metro Manila (NCR), National Capital Region (NCR). Population 253K (PSA 2024 census), 18 barangays, land area 8.94 km².
Navotas City is in the National Capital Region (NCR), also called Metro Manila.
Yes. Navotas City is a highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, officially the National Capital Region (NCR).
Navotas City is in the Third District of the National Capital Region, also known as the Northern Manila District, together with Caloocan, Malabon and Valenzuela. The Philippine Statistics Authority groups Metro Manila's cities and its one municipality into four such districts. They are a statistical and administrative grouping, not congressional districts.
Navotas City had 252,878 residents in the 2024 census (PSA 2024 Census of Population (POPCEN 2024), reference date July 1, 2024). That is the most recent official count. There is no 2026 census result, so any 2026 population figure is an estimate.
Navotas City covers 8.94 km², per the PSA Philippine Statistical Yearbook figure used on this page.
Navotas City has 18 barangays.
Navotas is the smallest of Metro Manila's coastal cities by land area but carries an outsized role in the region's food supply: the Navotas Fish Port Complex, built on reclaimed land at the northeastern edge of Manila Bay, is the country's largest fish-trading and cold-storage hub, and the reason Navotas is widely known as the "Fishing Capital of the Philippines." That economic identity sits directly on top of the city's biggest planning constraint — Navotas is low-lying, coastal, and part of the CAMANAVA flood basin it shares with Caloocan, Malabon, and Valenzuela, so the same waterfront that sustains the fish trade also floods first when high tide, storm surge, and heavy rain line up. Barangays like Tangos, Tanza, and North Bay Boulevard South sit closest to that risk, and resettlement of families along reclaimed and informal waterfront settlements remains an active, unresolved planning question for the city.
Key industries: Fishing and fish trading, Seafood processing and cold storage, Port logistics, Ship and vessel services
Navotas was recognized as a Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) passer in both 2023 and 2024, one of only a handful of NCR cities to make the list both years. Its comprehensive land use plan has to do something few other CLUPs in the country attempt: zone for a working industrial fish port, dense residential barangays, and active coastal-hazard evacuation routes inside 8.94 km² — with almost no undeveloped land left to reallocate. For a barangay-level breakdown of flood risk and evacuation guidance, see the Navotas flood safety guide on Nova Citizen.
Officials managing Navotas's zoning challenges can compare approaches with other NCR cities profiled in the LGU directory, including neighboring Caloocan, which shares the same CAMANAVA flood exposure. Planning teams evaluating digital compliance tools can explore the pilot program or schedule a consultation.
More on the regulatory framework: CLUP compliance (RA 7160 / EO 72 / DHSUD) · SGLG explainer (RA 11292) · full glossary.
Navotas has to keep a working fish port, dense housing, and coastal-hazard evacuation zones straight inside one of the smallest land areas of any Philippine city. Nova Gov's compliance tooling is built to help planning offices like Navotas's keep zoning categories, hazard overlays, and barangay-level records aligned in one place instead of across separate paper systems. The citizen-facing side, Nova Citizen, is designed to give residents a single place to check tide and storm-surge advisories relevant to their barangay.
Navotas has almost no undeveloped land left, and most of what remains sits close to the water. Nova Gov's pilot program is built for exactly this kind of constrained, high-stakes planning environment.
See the platform in a demo →We build custom software around CLUP, CDP and zoning work, for LGU planning offices and for the planning firms LGUs hire. Free 30-minute workflow call, then a fixed written quote.
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