Also known as: Tayabas, Lalawigan ng Quezon
Quezon is a province in Region IV-A (CALABARZON). Population 1.98M (PSA 2024 census), 1 component city + 39 municipalities, 1,209 barangays total, land area 8,706.6 km². Provincial capital: Lucena City (Highly Urbanized City since 1991, independent of the province; a 2025–2026 legal dispute over whether that conversion was ever properly completed remains unresolved).
Quezon is a province in Region IV-A (CALABARZON). Its capital is Lucena City (Highly Urbanized City since 1991, independent of the province; a 2025–2026 legal dispute over whether that conversion was ever properly completed remains unresolved).
No. Quezon is a province in Region IV-A (CALABARZON), outside Metro Manila (the National Capital Region).
Quezon had 1,980,338 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.
Quezon covers 8,706.6 km², per the PSA Philippine Statistical Yearbook figure used on this page.
Quezon has 1 component city and 39 municipalities (40 LGUs under the province), per PSA's Philippine Standard Geographic Code (2Q 2026), and 1,209 barangays. Lucena City is a highly urbanized city located within Quezon but administered independently of the province, so it is not counted above; counting it, there are 2 cities in all.
Quezon's 1 component city is Tayabas City. Its 39 municipalities are Agdangan, Alabat, Atimonan, Buenavista, Burdeos, Calauag, Candelaria, Catanauan, Dolores, General Luna, General Nakar, Guinayangan, Gumaca, Infanta, Jomalig, Lopez, Lucban, Macalelon, Mauban, Mulanay, Padre Burgos, Pagbilao, Panukulan, Patnanungan, Perez, Pitogo, Plaridel, Polillo, Quezon, Real, Sampaloc, San Andres, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Narciso, Sariaya, Tagkawayan, Tiaong and Unisan. Lucena City is a highly urbanized city located within Quezon but administered independently of the province, so it is not counted above; counting it, there are 2 cities in all.
Quezon is one of the largest provinces in the Philippines by land area, stretching from the CALABARZON mainland core down through the Bondoc Peninsula to the Tayabas Isthmus — the narrow land bridge connecting Luzon to the Bicol region. It was known as Tayabas Province until 1946, when Republic Act No. 14 renamed it in honor of President Manuel L. Quezon; Tayabas City, now a component city near Lucena, still carries the old provincial name. That elongated geography means the province spans genuinely different planning realities: a CALABARZON-adjacent core near Lucena, an isolated 12-municipality peninsula forming the entire 3rd Congressional District, and island municipalities on Polillo and Alabat that depend on boat or ferry access.
Quezon's capital, Lucena City, has been administered as a Highly Urbanized City — independent of the province — since 1991. That's the long-standing, still-current-in-most-references classification. But Quezon's own Provincial Legal Office has argued since late 2025 that the 1991 conversion was never properly completed, since no presidential proclamation or ratifying plebiscite followed it, and asked DILG for a formal opinion; DILG's response and a subsequent certification have left the two sides still disagreeing as of this research. It's a live example of exactly the kind of LGU-classification ambiguity that complicates CLUP and revenue coordination between a capital city and its province.
Economically, Quezon is the country's top coconut-producing province by a wide margin, with rice farming, a fisheries sector spanning over 1,000 km of coastline, and island and nature tourism rounding out the base. The province's most serious documented land-use lesson came in November 2004, when a weak tropical depression triggered flash floods and landslides in General Nakar, Real, and Infanta — the “REINA” towns — with a death toll that grew into the hundreds and then over a thousand as reports came in, widely attributed to upland deforestation on the Sierra Madre slopes above the towns. Those three municipalities have since coordinated a joint tourism plan, but the watershed land-use question that caused the disaster is still a live DENR and provincial planning concern. Between the Lucena dispute, the Bondoc Peninsula's isolation, and the REINA towns' flood history, Quezon's 39 municipalities and Tayabas City are coordinating CLUP submissions across about as much geographic and political variance as any single province in the country.
Key industries: Coconut production (top-producing province nationally), Rice farming, Fisheries (1,000+ km of coastline), Island + nature tourism, Coconut oil milling
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.
Quezon's provincial planning office coordinates CLUP submissions across 39 municipalities and Tayabas City spanning a mainland CALABARZON core, the geographically isolated Bondoc Peninsula, and boat-dependent island municipalities — on top of an unresolved dispute over whether the capital, Lucena City, is even legally independent of the province right now. Nova Gov's pilot program is designed to help a provincial team keep one consistent record of CLUP status across that kind of geographically fragmented LGU roster, rather than reconstructing it LGU by LGU.
Quezon's 39 municipalities and Tayabas City span a CALABARZON mainland core, the isolated Bondoc Peninsula, and boat-dependent island towns — with an unresolved dispute over the capital's own LGU status layered on top. See how Nova Gov's pilot program approaches multi-LGU CLUP coordination.
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