Map of the Philippines showing all the regions and their provinces. See the full-size version.
A region (rehiyon in Filipino) is a administrative subdivision in the Philippines. As of 2002, there are 17 of them and they are further subdivided into 79 provinces (lalawigan). Regions are generally organized to group provinces that have the same cultural and ethnological characteristics.
The provinces are actually the primary political subdivision. They are grouped into regions for administrative convenience. Most government offices establish regional offices instead of individual provincial offices, usually in the city designated as the regional capital.
The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Muslim Mindanao which is autonomous.
As of 2002, the Philippines consists of 17 regions. The regions are geographically combined into the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Following is a list of the regions in their island groupings. To get overviews of the regions, see the respective articles on the island groups.
The Philippines is the world's second largest archipelago with over 7000 islands and stretching 1900 km from north to south.
The Philippines is crossed by a number of tectonic faults which include Lingayen-Dingalan, West Luzon Shear Zone, Philippine Fault, along with several fracture zones.
West of the Philippines in the South China Sea lies the Manila Trench which is an eastward moving subduction which has created the 900 km long volcanic belt from Taiwan to Mindoro.
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