Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu[a], is a highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of
the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 964,169 people,[8] making it the
sixth-most populated city in the nation and the most populous in the Visayas and the Central Visayas
Region.
It serves as the capital of Cebu wherein it is geographically situated and grouped under the province by
the Philippine Statistics Authority, but is one of three cities (together with Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue) that
are administratively independent of the provincial government and also the largest city within that
province. It also serves as the regional center of Central Visayas, and its metropolitan area exerts
influence on commerce, trade, industry, education, culture, tourism, and healthcare beyond the region,
over Central and Eastern Visayas and partly over Mindanao. It is the Philippines' main domestic shipping
port and is home to about 80% of the country's domestic shipping companies. Additionally, Cebu City is
the prime trading center of the southern Philippines.
Cebu City is bounded on the north by the town of Balamban and the city of Danao, on the west by the
city of Toledo, on the east by the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and the towns
of Liloan, Consolacion and Compostela and to the south by the city of Talisay. Located at the center of
the eastern seaboard of Cebu Island, it is the core city of Metro Cebu, the second largest metropolitan
area in the Philippines, which includes the cities of Carcar, Danao, Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, Naga and
Talisay and the municipalities (towns) of Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla and San
Fernando. Metro Cebu had a total population of 3,165,799 as of the 2020 census.[9]
The current political boundaries of the city are an incorporation of the former municipalities of Cebu,
San Nicolas, El Pardo, Mabolo, Talamban and Banilad in the Commonwealth period.[10]
The city has experienced rapid economic growth since the 1990s, a phenomenon also known as
"Ceboom". Owing to its economic importance and influence in modern times, Cebu City is also popularly
referred to as the Queen City of the South.[11]
Etymology
[edit]
The word sugbú in Cebuano means "to dive into water",[12][13] and also in Tagalog, Hiligaynon,[14] Aklanon,
and Mansaka languages with more or less the same meaning. The name is probably derived from
the Proto-Philippine word *sug(e)bu meaning "to wade into water".[12][15] As with most settlements in the
Philippines whose common origin is either derived from an abundance of plants, for
example, Manila and one of the most common names of cities in the Philippines, Talisay and settlements
near a body of water, for example, Iloilo and the island of Mindanao. Early iterations of the name
include Çubu, and Zubu,[15][16] and then eventually "Cebu". Thus, the modern name is either probably a
16th–17th century Spanish pronunciation of the native name or as how it was heard by early chroniclers
in that time period. The Selden Map records the island known to the Ming dynasty as sokbu (束務), a
Hokkien pronunciation of the name (in Mandarin Chinese "suwu"), in the early 17th century.[17]
