Also known as: City of Puerto Princesa, Lungsod ng Puerto Princesa
Puerto Princesa City is a highly urbanized city in Palawan, Region IV-B (MIMAROPA). Population 316K (PSA 2024 census), 66 barangays, land area 2381.02 km².
Puerto Princesa City is a highly urbanized city in Palawan, Region IV-B (MIMAROPA).
Puerto Princesa City had 316,384 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.
Puerto Princesa City covers 2,381.02 km², per the PSA Philippine Statistical Yearbook figure used on this page.
Puerto Princesa City has 66 barangays.
Puerto Princesa City is Palawan's highly urbanized capital and, at 2,381.02 km², the second-largest city in the Philippines by land area — behind Davao City, not the largest, despite a claim to that effect on the city's own website. Its economy centers on ecotourism, anchored by the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and named New7Wonders of Nature site, alongside fisheries and a construction sector that PSA credited as a growth driver in the city's 2024 local economy, one of MIMAROPA's fastest-growing that year.
Key industries: Tourism and ecotourism, Fisheries and aquaculture, Construction, Ecotourism-linked services
Despite a popular "typhoon-free" reputation, Puerto Princesa is not exempt from storm risk: a WWF-cited study tracked 98 storms passing through the area over roughly five decades, and the city's tourism-dependent eastern hub, including its seaport and airport, sits in a low-lying zone exposed to storm surge and sea-level rise. Tourism management at the Underground River has its own planning tension — daily visitor caps of up to 1,200 protect cave-roosting bats from noise and light disturbance, and an October 2025 viral complaint about outdated queuing infrastructure prompted the Protected Area Management Office to commit publicly to a modernization roadmap. Puerto Princesa's population grew from 307,079 in the 2020 Census to 316,384 in the 2024 Census.
Officials managing Puerto Princesa's tourism-carrying-capacity and coastal-hazard planning can compare notes with other MIMAROPA LGUs in the LGU directory. 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.
Puerto Princesa has to balance tourism-carrying-capacity limits at a UNESCO site against real, if underappreciated, storm exposure across a city larger than several entire provinces — a planning problem that spans environmental permitting, hazard mapping, and visitor-infrastructure records. Nova Gov's platform is built for exactly this kind of cross-department coordination, and the pilot program is designed to help planning offices bring hazard overlays and land-use records into one place.
Balancing Underground River visitor caps against real storm-surge exposure across 2,381 km² takes coordination across departments. See how a founding pilot could line up hazard overlays with zoning and permitting records ahead of the next event.
Explore the Puerto Princesa pilot →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.
See what we build for urban planners →