Pagadian is a coastal component city in the province of Zamboanga del Sur. It serves as the provincial capital as well as the regional center of Zamboanga Peninsula.
The city has a land area of 378.80 square kilometers or 146.26 square miles which constitutes 8.45% of Zamboanga del Sur’s total area. Its population as determined by the 2020 Census was 210,452. This represented 20.03% of the total population of Zamboanga del Sur province, or 5.43% of the overall population of the Zamboanga Peninsula region. Based on these figures, the population density is computed at 556 inhabitants per square kilometer or 1,439 inhabitants per square mile.