Itbayat, Batanes

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Map of Batanes showing the location of Itbayat

The island municipality of Itbayat is the largest of the three inhabited islands that compose the province of Batanes. It is also the northernmost municipality in the Philippines, located only over 200 kilometers from the southernmost tip of Formosa.

While the church and civil government were already established in Batan Island mid 1783, its was only in 1855 that civil authority was officially established and the mission canonically founded in Itbayat. A mere pueblo during the Spanish regime, it became a municipal district when the Americans organized the province in 1909. However, in 1935, it became a municipality and today it is a 5th class municipality in the province of Batanes, Philippines.

According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 3,616 people in 719 households.