Also known as: Lalawigan ng Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur is a province in Region I (Ilocos Region). Population 710K (PSA 2024 census), 2 cities + 32 municipalities, 768 barangays total, land area 2,596.0 km². Provincial capital: Vigan City.
Ilocos Sur is a province in Region I (Ilocos Region). Its capital is Vigan City.
Ilocos Sur had 709,991 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.
Ilocos Sur covers 2,596.0 km², per the PSA Philippine Statistical Yearbook figure used on this page.
Ilocos Sur has 2 component cities and 32 municipalities (34 LGUs under the province), per PSA's Philippine Standard Geographic Code (2Q 2026), and 768 barangays.
Ilocos Sur's 2 component cities are Candon City and Vigan City. Its 32 municipalities are Alilem, Banayoyo, Bantay, Burgos, Cabugao, Caoayan, Cervantes, Galimuyod, Gregorio Del Pilar, Lidlidda, Magsingal, Nagbukel, Narvacan, Quirino, Salcedo, San Emilio, San Esteban, San Ildefonso, San Juan, San Vicente, Santa, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Santa Lucia, Santa Maria, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Sigay, Sinait, Sugpon, Suyo and Tagudin.
Ilocos Sur's capital, Vigan, is a component city — not an independent HUC — so its population is included in the province's own totals, unlike the independent-city pattern seen elsewhere in this dataset. Vigan was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 for its exceptionally intact fusion of Asian and European colonial architecture, and its cityhood itself has an unusually deep legal history: Republic Act No. 8988 (2000) formally validated Vigan's original 1757 creation by Spanish royal decree under the name 'Ciudad Fernandina.'
Key industries: Tourism (Vigan City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Virginia tobacco, Rice, Abel weaving and Burnay pottery
Heritage-preservation zoning around Vigan's historic core is real and longstanding. Virginia tobacco remains the province's agricultural backbone: Ilocos Sur is the largest of the four Ilocos tobacco-growing provinces, receiving roughly ₱9.28 billion of a ₱15 billion national tobacco excise tax fund in FY2020 alone — by far the largest provincial share nationally.
Key industries: Tourism (Vigan City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), Virginia tobacco, Rice, Abel weaving and Burnay pottery
More on the regulatory framework: CLUP explainer · RA 7160 explainer · SGLG explainer · full glossary. Working a CLUP review cycle? Run the CLUP readiness self-check or see CLUP compliance monitoring.
A province built around a UNESCO World Heritage city with real, longstanding heritage-preservation zoning demands, alongside 32 municipalities running a very different rice-and-tobacco land-use profile, is exactly the kind of dual-track coordination a live PDPFP-to-CLUP dashboard is built to support.
Vigan's UNESCO heritage-preservation demands sit alongside a very different land-use profile across the province's 32 municipalities. A Nova Gov pilot brings both into one coordinated view.
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