The Queen City of the South

nt in terms of government and administration. In addition, it is the center of the Iloilo–Guimaras Metropolitan Area, as well as the regional center and primate city of the Western Visayas region. According to the 2020 census, Iloilo City has a population of 457,626 people. For the metropolitan area, the total population is 1,007,945 people. Iloilo City is a conglomeration of former towns, which are now the geographical or administrative districts consisting of: Villa de Arevalo, Iloilo City Proper, Jaro (an independent city before), La Paz, Mandurriao, and Molo. The district of Lapuz, a former part of La Paz, was declared a separate district in 2008. Iloilo was the second Spanish colonial center after Cebu in the Philippine Islands. It was founded in 1566 when the Spanish established a colony area between the towns of Ogtong (present-day Oton) and La Villa Rica de Arevalo (present-day city district). It was one of the royal Spanish cities in the Philippines in the Spanish East Indies. The honorific royal title, "La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad" which translates to The Most Loyal and Noble City, was given by the Queen Regent of Spain, Maria Christina, for the city's loyalty to the Spanish crown during the Philippine Revolution, the second city to have such a byname in the country after the City of Manila. At the turn of the 20th century, Iloilo was second next to Manila in terms of economic importance in the country. Before the Treaty of Paris ceded the Philippines to the United States in 1898, Iloilo served as the Spanish Empire's last capital in Asia and the Pacific. Iloilo was also the capital of the Federal State of the Visayas, a short-lived state in the central Philippines patterned after the United States federalism and the Swiss confederacy. In modern times, the city remains one of the Philippines' most influential cities in terms of its history, culture, and economy. The city is the regional hub of education, culinary, religion, healthcare, tourism, culture, industry and economy in Western Visayas. A thriving academic center, Iloilo City is a melting pot which draws foreign and local students from various parts of the country and abroad. Central Philippine University (CPU), a university founded by American Protestants through a grant of John D. Rockefeller as the first Baptist and second American institution of higher learning in Asia, attracts 15,000 enrollees from different parts of the Philippines and twenty-seven foreign countries annually, the largest for a single campus university in the Western Visayan region. The city's excellent urban planning and the continuing increase in real estate, financing, and business process outsourcing (BPO) demand have been attributed to its being one of the most livable cities in the country with an economic boom. In March 2022, Colliers Philippines named Iloilo among the top locations for the expansion of outsourcing activity outside Metro Manila. According to CBRE Group, by 2025, it is projected to become the third largest hub for the IT-BPO industry in the country. Like the country's capital, Manila, Iloilo City is recognized by a number of nicknames, aliases, sobriquets, and slogans, both present and past. Though it is now more widely known as the City of Love, it was once renowned as the Queen City of the South. The city's official moniker is La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad (Most Loyal and Noble City), which is also depicted on the city's official seal.