Mega Manila
Manila (proper) skyline
Location of Mega Manila within the Philippines: blue (for theGreater Manila Area) and yellow, according to thePhilippine Information Agency
Country	Philippines
Regions	Calabarzon Central Luzon Metro Manila Most parts ofMimaropa
Area
• Metro	50,525 km2 (19,508 sq mi)
Population
• Metro	41,099,507
• Metro density	813.45/km2 (2,106.8/sq mi)
GDP(Nominal, 2024) [1]
• Metro	US$260 billion
• Per capita	US$6,300

Mega Manila is amegalopolis on the island ofLuzon in the Philippines. There are varying definitions of the megalopolis, but it is generally seen as encompassing the administrative regions ofCentral Luzon,Calabarzon, andMetro Manila. On some occasions, most parts of the administrative region ofMimaropa is also included.

It is frequently used in the press, advertising, television, and radio to refer to provinces bound to Manila, in contrast to the termGreater Manila Area, which is academically used to describe theurbanization process that has long spilled out of Metro Manila's borders, also known as thebuilt-up area. Mapping out the built-up area around Manila requires finergranularity than the more generic termMega Manila.

It is also being used more and more recently in planning for infrastructure projects by the government, particularly by theNational Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and theJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Mega Manila is used in general reference to the relationship of Metro Manila to the surrounding provinces. It references only provinces and not the exact settlement patterns of cities, towns, and barangays, which may be urban, suburban, mountainous, or rural areas that are still part of provinces close enough to Manila to be lumped into the definition.

Mega Manila, as a loose metropolitan area defined by thePhilippine Information Agency (PIA), is divided into the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) and the suburbs ofCentral Luzon, Calabarzon, andMimaropa.^[2]

Mega Manila's 2015 population was projected at 40,368,979 or 40% of the country's population, and covers roughly half of Luzon, with an area of 52,097.66 square kilometers, including many rural areas.^{[citation needed]}

TheNational Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) defines Mega Manila as Metro Manila and the surrounding specific provinces ofBulacan,Rizal,Cavite, andLaguna, especially on its study "Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas (Region III and Region IV-A)".^[3]

Notably, these collection of areas is also known as theGreater Manila Area. Meanwhile, the NEDA study, which is a collaboration with theJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), considers Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon as theGreater Capital Region (GCR).^[3]

TV ratings agencyAGB Nielsen Philippines andKantar Media Philippines consider Metro Manila and theprovinces ofBulacan,Cavite,Laguna andRizal as "Mega Manila"^[4] for theirTV ratings gathering (area highlighted in blue on the map), a much stricter definition than the PIA. Using census population in 2010^[5] the area has a population of 25,066,000 or about 26.6% of the population in an area roughly the size ofLos Angeles County and average density over 2000 people per square kilometer. As a comparison, only the cities ofTokyo,Jakarta, andMexico City have reached 25 million people,Shanghai may have but there is not enough detail in suburban statistics on it. Both Mega Manila definitions only include entire provinces, without finer detail.

This Nielsen defined area has a higher ownership of televisions per household anywhere in the country due to its relative economic prosperity as compared to other areas in the country. Radio ratings agency Radio Research Council (provided byKBP) also provide measurement of audience ratings.

The stricter Nielsen definition closer reflects the built-up area surrounding Manila than the PIA definition, Yet even the Nielsen definition of Mega Manila cannot be merely equated to the built-up area; the Nielsen definition includes significant undeveloped forested areas, while completely excluding contiguous developed settlements in such places like northernBatangas. Thus the academic definition as used forurban studies for built-up area surrounding Manila requires yet another term (e.g.Greater Manila Area) to disambiguate from the already used termsMega Manila andMetro Manila.

Comparison of definitions by source

Source	Term	NCR	Central Luzon							Calabarzon					Mimaropa
			AUR	BAN	BUL	NUE	PAM	TAR	ZMB	BTG	CAV	LAG	QUE	RIZ	MAD	PLW	ROM	MDC	MDR
Mega Manila
PIA	Mega Manila
AGB Nielsen
Kantar Media
NEDA,JICA
Other terms
—	Greater Manila Area
NEDA,JICA	Greater Capital Region

In 2024, Mega Manila had GDP of around US$260 billion or 56% of total Philippines GDP.^[1]

Mega Manila encompasses the county's three most populated administrative regions – Calabarzon at number one, followed byMetro Manila, andCentral Luzon at third. The total population of Metro Manila and all the 12 provinces, including their threeindependent cities, 47component cities, and 238municipalities, is 41,099,507 as of 2020. This means 38.6 percent of Philippine's total population all live inside Mega Manila.^[6]

Officially called theNational Capital Region, it consists the Philippines' capital cityManila, 15 other cities, and one municipality. It is the seat of government of the Philippines. The cities of Metro Manila are the following:

The continuous region surrounding the Metropolitan Manila area. The provinces and the cities inside Greater Manila Area are the following:

A concept used by urban planners to refer to a region consisting the three regions ofMetro Manila,Central Luzon, and Calabarzon. It is used by JICA and NEDA as reference in their planning works. The provinces and cities in the Greater Capital Region are the following:

• Urban Luzon
• Mega Manila
  • Greater Manila Area
    • Metro Manila

• Philippine Information Agency

• Mass media in the Philippines
• Television in the Philippines
• Luzon

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox settlement with no coordinates
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023