Place:Santa Maria, Bulacan, Central Luzon, Philippines

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Santa Maria, officially the Municipality of Santa Maria, is a 1st class Highly urbanized municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 289,820 people. representing 7.8% of the population of the province.

Located on the banks of the Santa Maria River, north of Manila, Santa Maria has been a thriving settlement for almost four centuries. It was founded as a barrio of Bocaue in the early 17th century until it was established as an independent municipality on November 26, 1793, by the Spanish friar Francisco Dominguez Javier OFM. Known before as Santa Maria de Pandi, it is named under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception (also known as La Purisima Concepcion). Its administrative center, the Poblacion, forms as the historic core of the municipality. It is surrounded by four rivers and it still largely retains its 2.88 square-kilometer boundaries since the Spanish Colonial Era.

Santa Maria, with a population of 256,454, remains by a significant margin the most populous municipality in Central Luzon, as well as the 5th most populous municipality in the Philippines. It is also the 2nd most populous local government unit in Bulacan next to San Jose del Monte City. As of 2015, Santa Maria's urban population is 254,056 out of the total population of 256,454. The said urban population represents 99.10% of the total population of Santa Maria.. The projected population for 2020 was 284,078 while the population for 2025 was projected to reach 305,668.

Its downtown area consists of three highly urbanized barangays: Poblacion, Bagbaguin, and Santa Clara. It is one of the biggest and busiest commercial centers in the province as it accounts for more than half of all economic activities in the municipality. It is also one of Bulacan's leading financial centers. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), Santa Maria's total bank deposits reached PHP 29.732 billion as of December 2020, this accounts for almost 75% of Eastern Bulacan's total bank deposits. Likewise, Santa Maria is the richest municipality in Bulacan with an assets totaling to PHP 1.6 billion and revenues reaching an all-time high of PHP 824 million as of the 2019 report from the Commission on Audit (COA). It has a relatively high standard of living, with only 4% of the population living in poverty which is one of the lowest in the country (19 out of 1,489 municipalities).

Santa Maria was the home town of José Corazón de Jesús, a Filipino poet popularly known as "Huseng Batute", who started composing his verse as a child. Another native of Santa Maria is Francisco Santiago, a composer who wrote "Nasaan Ka Irog" and other kundiman songs. In the political arena, Santa Maria has produced three Bulacan governors: Jose Serapio (1900–1901), Trinidad Icasiano (1912–1916), Fortunato Halili (1943–1944 and 1946–1951); and two representatives of the second and fourth district: Rogaciano Mercado (1953–1992) and Reylina Nicolas (2001–2010).

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