Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of the same name that also includes its adjacent islands, notably the Sulu Archipelago. According to the 2020 census, Mindanao has a population of 26,252,442 people, while the entire island group has an estimated population of 27,021,036 according to the 2021 census.
The Philippines is an archipelago that comprises 7,641 islands, and with a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), it is the world's fifth largest island country. The eleven largest islands contain 95% of the total land area. The largest of these islands is Luzon at about 105,000 square kilometers (40,541 sq mi). The next largest island is Mindanao at about 95,000 square kilometers (36,680 sq mi). The archipelago is around 800 kilometers (500 mi) from the Asian mainland and is located between Taiwan and Borneo.
In the Philippines, provinces are one of its primary political and administrative divisions. There are 82 provinces at present, which are further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The local government units in the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by an elected legislature called the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and an elected governor.
Davao Region, formerly called Southern Mindanao, is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region XI. It is situated at the southeastern portion of Mindanao and comprises five provinces: Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, and Davao Occidental.
There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano along with some local varieties of Chinese are also spoken in certain communities. The 1987 constitution designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as the national language and an official language along with English. Filipino is regulated by Commission on the Filipino Language and serves as a lingua franca used by Filipinos of various ethnolinguistic backgrounds.
Tausūg is an Austronesian language spoken in the province of Sulu in the Philippines and in the eastern area of the state of Sabah, Malaysia as well as in the Nunukan Regency, province of North Kalimantan, Indonesia by the Tausūg people. It is widely spoken in the Sulu Archipelago, the Zamboanga Peninsula, southern Palawan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Maguindanaon, or Magindanawn is an Austronesian language spoken by Maguindanaon people who form majority of the population of eponymous provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur in the Philippines. It is also spoken by sizable minorities in different parts of Mindanao such as the cities of Zamboanga, Davao, and General Santos, and the provinces of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Davao del Sur, as well as Metro Manila.
The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim peoples from the southernmost island group of Mindanao are usually categorized together as Moro peoples, whether they are classified as Indigenous peoples or not. About 142 are classified as non-Muslim Indigenous people groups, and about 19 ethnolinguistic groups are classified as neither Indigenous nor Moro. Various migrant groups have also had a significant presence throughout the country's history.
The Pan-Philippine Highway, also known as the Maharlika Highway, is a network of roads, expressways, bridges, and ferry services that connect the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao in the Philippines, serving as the country's principal transport backbone. Measuring 3,379.73 kilometers (2,100.07 mi) long excluding sea routes not counted by highway milestones, it is the longest road in the Philippines that forms the country's north–south backbone component of National Route 1 (N1) of the Philippine highway network. The entire highway is designated as Asian Highway 26 (AH26) of the Asian Highway Network.
General elections were held for the first time on February 12, 1990, in the newly created Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for the regional governor and vice governor.
Telephone numbers in the Philippines follow an open telephone numbering plan and an open dial plan. Both plans are regulated by the National Telecommunications Commission, an attached agency under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
The Christian And Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines (CAMACOP) is a Christian evangelical group in the Philippines that originated from The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). It is one of the largest evangelical groups in the Philippines.
Metro Davao, officially Metropolitan Davao, is a metropolitan area in Mindanao, Philippines. It includes the cities of Davao, Digos, Mati, Panabo, Samal and Tagum and spanned parts of all five provinces of the Davao Region. Metro Davao is one of three metropolitan areas in the Philippines. It is administered by the Metropolitan Davao Development Authority. It is the largest metropolitan region by land area and the second most populous in the Philippines.
Kabkab, also known as cassava cracker or cassava crisp, is a traditional Filipino disc-shaped wafer made from ground cassava. It originates from the southern Philippines, but is most closely associated with the cuisine of Mindanao and the southern Visayas Islands.
Regional TV Weekend News is a Philippine television news broadcasting show broadcast by GMA News TV, GMA Network and GTV. It premiered on July 27, 2019, on GMA News TV and on March 21, 2020, on GMA Network. The show concluded on GMA Network on May 2, 2020. The show aired its last episode on July 24, 2021, to give way for Regional TV News.
COVID-19 community quarantines in the Philippines were a series of stay-at-home orders and cordon sanitaire measures that were implemented by the government of the Philippines through its Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
The 1977 Southern Philippines autonomy plebiscite was a plebiscite to create an autonomous region held on April 17, 1977 in parts of Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines.
