Population and Industry

As of 2000, the province has a population of 3,356,137. It has its own dialect, Cebuano. Administratively the island is divided into 44 municipalities and 6 component cities and 3 highly urbanized cities -Cebu City (the capital, has a population of more than 718,000), Mandaue and Lapulapu. Greater Cebu, Metro Cebu, has a total population of more than 2 million, more than half of the total population of the island.

The large Ludo-Luym factory (run by two Chinese, an immigrant from Amoy who came here in 1896 and his son, who succeeded him) processes 600 tons of copra a day, and exports to the United States bring in valuable foreign currency. In the town centre is a 15-storey block, 60 m high, erected by the firm, this building was then the tallest building in the City during 1970s.

At Mandaue, the highly urbanized city in the province of Cebu is a huge industrial complex extending over 25 hectares established by the San Miguel Corporation 1968. It includes a brewery, a fruit juice factory, a modern glass-works, a factory producing plastics, etc. The corporation, the fourth largest in the Philippines, has a wide range of interests, including not only cattle feed and ice-cream, coke and instant coffee, but also copper mining, printing, cardboard manufacture, metalworking, chemicals, textiles and cement. Other industries include sugar refineries, cement works, canning, the manufacture of cane furniture and ceramics. Toledo City also known as Pueblo Hinulawan is situated on the West coast. It has a factory producing chemical fertilizers. There are also active craft industries, often on a family basis the weaving of sinamay (banana and pineapple fibers), the making of guitars and other musical instruments (on the island of Mactan) as well as the making of articles from shells, etc.