Quick Facts: The Surigao City Primer

Wanna know Surigao City in a flash? This article will help you learn quick facts about the City of Island Adventures.

Geography

Surigao City is geographically located in the northeastern portion of Mindanao. It lies between 9 to 10 degrees north latitude and 125 to 126 degrees east longitude. It is bounded by Dinagat Island on the north, the mainland of Surigao del Norte on the south, Hinatuan passage on the east, Surigao Strait and Southern Leyte on the west.

Land Area

In the 1980 Surigao City Town Plan, Surigao City’s total land area was recorded at 24,534 hectares or 245.34 square kilometers (see Table 1.1). This total land area is roughly equivalent to 1.4% of Caraga Region’s land area of 1,884,697 hectares. This was officially recognized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and National Statistics Office (NSO) as the official land area of Surigao City.

With the new certification issued by DENR, which was based from the Geographic Information System (GIS) generated land area of cities, municipalities and provinces of CARAGA Region, the official total land area of Surigao City as of CY 2002 now stands at 26,117 hectares or 261.17 kilometers.

However, this new land area of 26,117 hectares was not yet officially recognized by NSO-Manila, obliging the city to use its original land area of 24,534 hectares as official in its physical and demographical computations in relation to the city’s socio-economic information.


Barangays

Surigao City is comprised of 54 barangays; 33 are mainland and 21 are island barangays. The city proper is divided into five (5) urban barangays, namely: Taft, Washington, San Juan, Canlanipa and Luna. It has also eight (8) sub-urban barangays. Out of twenty (20) rural mainland barangays, fourteen (14) of which are in the mainland and six (6) are located along the coastal areas.

Climate

In 2005, the prevailing climate in the city falls under climate Type II with no definite dry season but with a pronounced maximum rainfall from November to March. There are 223 rainy days making the city one of the “wettest” in the country. Its average maximum temperature stands at convenient 32.7 degrees centigrade with an average humidity of 83%.

Population

During the censal year 2000, Surigao City’s population reached 118,534 with the average annual growth rate increase of about 2.65% compared from the censal year of 1995 (Table 2.1). Barangay Washington accounted for the largest population, followed by Barangays Taft, San Juan, Luna, Canlanipa and Rizal.

Dialects and Religious Affiliation

Almost 90% of the households in the city speak the native dialect Surigaonon, Cebuano follows it by 1.99%, Boholano – 0.37% and Butuanon – 0.16% (Table 2.11). The rest of the population speaks all other local dialects. On the other hand, 88% of the household populations are Roman Catholics, followed by Aglipay – 6.96%. Iglesia Ni Cristo – 2.51% and UCCP – 2.0%