According to the 2015 census, San Carlos City has a population of 188,571 inhabitants and belongs to the 147 emerging cities in the Philippines with more than 100,000 residents. Based on the number of its inhabitants, San Carlos City is number 70 of the most populous cities of the Philippines and at 50 in Luzon group of islands. With an area of 16,903 hectares, San Carlos City is a relatively small urban area. Accordingly, there is a high population density.

San Carlos City is a third class city in the Province of Pangasinan. According to the 2015 census of the National Statistics Office, it has a population of 188,571 making it most populated city in Pangasinan.

The City Growth Rate as computed based on the NSO 2015 population census shows a population of 188,571, with the growth rate is 1.42%.

Population Density

The gross density pertains to the ratio of the total population of an area to the total land area. Using a total population of 188,571 as of 2015, the population with a total land area of 16,903 population density of the City of San Carlos is 10 persons per hectare. In 2016, the population density of San Carlos increase to 11 persons per hectare.

Population Distribution

There are thirty (30) urban barangays out of 86 barangays in the City of San Carlos as follows:

-Urban Population

Among the thirty (30) urban barangays in the City of San Carlos, barangay Tarece ranks number 1 in terms of population which is 4,666 or 2.474 percent followed by Coliling with 4,541 number of population, and Pagal ranks number 3 with a total population of 4,121. However, the least populated barangay is Bugallon-Posadas with a total population of 513.

-Rural Population

There are fifty-six (56) rural barangays in the City of San Carlos as shown on the table below:

The most populated barangay is Turac with a total of 5,702 or 3.024 percent share of the total rural population, while the least populated barangay is Bani having a population of 723 or 0.383 percent of the total rural population.

Based on the 2015 CBMS data, the City of San Carlos has a population of 15 years old and over out of 113,194 total population, that is broken down into 56,672 males and 56,522 females. Thus, 34,247 males and 15,600 females were employed. Both sexes have a total household population of 49,847 employed or 43.80 percent of the total household population.

The number of unemployed has a total of 11,480. Of which is 5,906 are male and 5,574 are female, while its rate of unemployment of the City of San Carlos is 10.09%.

The projected labor force by year 2027 will increase to 27.87 percent or 78,418, of which is thus 63,739 projected employed to the total population. However, 14,679 population is projected to be unemployed or an increase of 3,199 or 27.86 percent.