The increase of Zamboanga City's population size and density overtime is
inevitable. Similarly, increases in population sizes and densities at the barangay
level are inevitable. Population sizes and densities of barangays, however, vary:
there are those that are larger or that are growing faster compared to others; and
there are those with population densities exceeding 50,000 and those still below
500 in 2010. Can population size and density increases be directed or guided
location-wise? The main objectives of the study are to characterize the spatial
patterns of population distribution in Zamboanga City, more specifically the
patterns across barangays, and then to examine the factors that may have
influenced the pattern in the location of the city's population. The city has a
unique geographic configuration: the city center barangays are located at a tip of
the peninsula and the outer barangays are located along the coastal areas on
each of the East and West side of the peninsula. This study examined how
population is distributed and how population increase had been accommodated
spatially in such a setting. The barangay is used as the unit of analysis in the
study; and, thus, land area, population size and population density were
quantified by barangay and then analyzed across the city's 98 barangays.