Bulacan

Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan (Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Bulacan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578, and part of the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway Super Region. This province is a part of the Greater Manila Area. It has 572 barangays in 20 municipalities and four component cities (Baliwag, Malolos the provincial capital, Meycauayan, and San Jose del Monte the largest city). Bulacan is located immediately north of Metro Manila. Bordering Bulacan are the provinces of Pampanga to the west, Nueva Ecija to the north, Aurora and Quezon to the east, and Metro Manila and Rizal to the south. Bulacan also lies on the north-eastern shore of Manila Bay. In the 2024 census, Bulacan had a population of 3,876,806 people, the most populous in Central Luzon and the third most populous in the Philippines, after Cebu and Cavite. Bulacan's most populated city is San Jose del Monte, the most populated municipality is Santa Maria, while the least populated is Doña Remedios Trinidad yet the largest municipality in terms of area. In 1899, the historic Barasoain Church in Malolos was the birthplace of the First Philippine Republic, sometimes described as the first constitutional democracy in Asia. On November 7, 2018, the Provincial Government of Bulacan bagged its fourth Seal of Good Local Governance award. The SGLG award is a progressive assessment system that gives distinction to remarkable governance performance.