Naga

About Naga

Naga is an independent component city in the Bicol Region of the Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 210,545 people. It is the most populous city in Camarines Sur and the smallest city in Bicol by land area. On 26 May 2026, President Bongbong Marcos signed the resolution Proclamation No. 1267, proclaiming Naga as a highly urbanized city. Under the Local Government Code of 1991, a plebiscite is required within 120 days to ratify the proclamation to formally convert Naga into a highly urbanized city.

The town was established in 1575 by order of Spanish Governor-General Francisco de Sande. The city, then named Nueva Cáceres (New Cáceres), was one of the Spanish royal cities in the Spanish East Indies, along with Manila, Cebu City, and Iloilo City, historically, the third oldest.

Geographically and statistically classified, as well as legislatively represented within Camarines Sur, but administratively and politically independent of the provincial government, Naga is considered to be the Bicol Region's trade, business, religious, cultural, industrial, commercial, medical, educational, and financial center.

Naga is known as the "Queen City of Bicol" due to the historical significance of Naga in the Bicol Region; as the "Heart of Bicol", due to its central geographical location on the Bicol Peninsula; and as "Pilgrim City," since Naga is also home to one of the largest Marian pilgrimages in Asia to the shrine of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, an image that is one of the country's most popular objects of devotion. Naga is described as "One of the Seven Golden Cities of the Sun" by Nick Joaquín.

It is one of the two cities in the Philippines named Naga, the other being in Cebu.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.