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Capital: Lingayen
Area: 5,386 sq km
Population: 2,400,000
Number of Towns: 45
Cities: Dagupan, San Carlos, Urdaneta, Alaminos City
With a total population of 2,434,086 based on the results of 2000 Census of Population and Housing (Census 2000), Pangasinan is the largest/most populous province in the country.
Majority of the household population in Pangasinan classify themselves as either Pangasinan/Panggalato (47.60 percent) or Ilocano (44.25) percent. The rest are either Tagalog (3.79 percent), Bolinao (1.96 percent), or are from other ethnic groups (2.41 percent).
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Pangasinan is ’a salt country’ as its name denotes in the vernacular and one of the 77 provinces of the Republic of the Philippines. Pangasinan is a long, wide, verdant crescent bounded by the wild Zambales range to the west and to the east by the Cordilleras -- the formidable mountains that form the spine of the island of Luzon. To the south, Pangasinan extends to the rice-and-sugar farmlands of Tarlac, and north to the crowning glory of Lingayen Gulf and the South China Sea. This shoreline is a great arc of variegated character: from fantastically tall, craggy rock roughly chiseled by the surf, to the mildest of white sand beaches. Well-hidden coves and inlets, promontories and caves, forests and woodland, charming fishing villages, and then the islands, fringe the coast. It faces the Asian mainland, outstretched widely in anticipation and welcome.
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The major industries are farming and fishing. The province accounted for more than half the Ilocos region’s rice output and three times as much fish production than the next leading fish-producing province. It is the home of the internationally known Bonuan Bangus (milkfish), the ever-smelly, yet ever-popular Lingayen Bagoong and the famous Calasiao Puto Siko and Puto Kutsinta. If you’d ever been at the tourist-attractive 100 Islands cluster off the western coast, you’d be wishing you’d own one of them. Mt. Balungao, a 2300-foot high extinct volcano on the eastern part of the province, is fast becoming a tourist spot with its hot springs and developing swimming pool convention center and other planned facilties.
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Pangasinan is accessible by most public utility vehicles like the Philippine Rabbit, Victory Liner, Minas Trans, Dagupan Bus and Five Star Buses. Within the province are jeepneys and minibuses and the ubiquitous all- purpose motorized tricycles.
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It is the home province of former President Fidel V. Ramos. The late Fernando Poe Jr....the action star of Philippines cinema, who lost his bid for the presidency in a hotly contested general election, is the proud son of San Carlos City.
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