Based on the official data as of January 2010 released by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), registered voters reached 50.7 million for the May 2010 National and Local Elections, which will use for the first time the automated election system in the whole country  The 50.7 million registered voters represents 90.2 percent of the total projected voting population of 56.21¹ million in the country in 2010. It should be noted that registered voters belong to the population 18 years old and above.

The five regions with the highest number of registered voters as of January 2010 were Region IV-A (6.7 M), NCR (6.1 M), Region III (5.6 M), Region VI  (3.9 M) and Region VII (3.9M). On the other hand, the regions with the lowest number of registered voters as of January 2010 were CAR with 0.9 M, followed by Caraga (1.4 M), Region IV-B (1.5 M), Region II  (1.8 M) and Region IX (1.9 M) (Table 1).

Table 1 - Number of Registered Voters by Region: 2004, 2007 and 2010

Source of data: Commission on Elections

From 2007 to 2010, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) reported the highest increase of registered voters from 1.5 million in 2007 to 1.9 million in 2010, posting a 25.2% increase, followed by Region IV-A, Region I and Region IV-B at 17.3%, 16.5% and 15.6%, respectively. Region XI, Region II and CAR also posted increases of 14.8%, 14.0% and 13.8%, respectively. The total number of registered voters in the country increased by 12.6% from 2007 to 2010.

By main island group, Luzon has the highest number of registered voters in 2010 at 28,368,890 followed by Mindanao at 12,064,753 and Visayas at 10,290,090, with increases of 12.8%, 14.3% and 10.3 %, respectively, compared to the 2007 figures (Table 2).

Table 2 – Number of Registered Voters by Main Island Group: 2004, 2007 and 2010

Source of data: Commission on Elections

¹As computed by the NSCB Technical Staff based on total projected population for all ages.