The population of Nueva Vizcaya in the 2024 census was 530,106 people, with a density of . Nueva Vizcaya is home to about 18 indigenous peoples, which includes the major tribes of the
Ifugao ,
Gaddang , Isinai ,
Dumagat ,
Kalanguya , and the Bugkalot . Indigenous peoples' groups have filed for ancestral domain titles covering parts of the province. The Ilokano population in the province are not indigenous as they were part of the labor force initially needed by the Spanish administration to work on the tobacco plantations beginning in the 1700s, and later immigrants with skills construct churches and other structures needed for development. Indigenous tribes were not cooperative with the Spaniards. After several insurrections by the locals, Spanish officials chose to import trained labor from established settlements in the coastal regions of Pangasinan and Ilocos. So, it was deliberated in the Spanish Congress the need for in migration of labor. After it was voted by a majority and approved by the king, Ilocanos started to migrate and were given homestead. Thus, the start of the migration of Ilocanos in the province. Every last week of May, these ethnolinguistic groups gather to celebrate the
Ammungan festival (formerly
Panagyaman festival), a week-long affair culminating on May 24, the province's foundation day. The influx of civilization and the infusion of modern technology to the life stream of the province induced immigration from adjacent provinces. The province was pushed to be included in the Cordillera Autonomous Region because the province is technically within the Cordillera, however, it did not came to be due to the failure to enact an autonomous Cordillera by the national government. Today, questions linger on the exclusion of Nueva Vizcaya despite the province being culturally and geographically linked to the Cordilleras. The province also has the largest Igorot population outside the Cordillera region.
Tagalogs live along the border of Nueva Ecija and in the capital, Bayombong.
Languages Nueva Vizcaya province possesses one of the most diverse array of indigenous languages in
Luzon, a testimony to its cultural and geographic linkages with the Cordillera mountain range. The indigenous languages of the province listed by the
Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino are the
Bugkalut language,
Ibaloy language,
Ifugaw language,
Iguwak language,
Irungdungan language,
Isinay language,
Kalanguya language, and
Kankanaey language. During the later part of the Spanish regime, people from Ilocos region migrated to the province through the recommendation of Spanish officials in the province. It was deliberated in the Spanish court in Spain and with a majority vote and approval of the king of Spain, Ilocanos were allowed to migrate to the province. Thus, the importation of the
Ilocano language and culture started, becoming the
lingua franca of the province. Ilocano accents were affected by the native languages of the peoples whom Ilocanos intermingled with. Remarkably, the economy of the province started to grow because of the industry of the Ilocanos as well as through their innate talent in entrepreneurship and in other industries including agriculture. As Nueva Vizcaya was part of Provincia de Cagayan which is the predecessor of Cagayan Valley, a few residents speak
Ibanag, which was the
lingua franca of Provincia de Cagayan before it was replaced by Ilocano.
Religion Roman Catholics are about 63% of the population of the province. Other faiths are divided among
Aglipayan Church,
Iglesia ni Cristo which form about 5–6% of the province population,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostals,
Seventh-day Adventist and other
Evangelical Christians which forms about 17%–20% of the province's population as well as
Muslims and indigenous Cordilleran religions. == Economy ==