Otherwise referred to as Itauit, Tawit, Ibannag-Itawit, the group is concentrated in the municipalities of Tuguegarao (23,916), Enrile (20,378), Peñablanca (17,087), Amulong (4,336), and Tuao (19,066) in the southern half of the province of Cagayan, in the area drained by the Chico and Matalag rivers. The national population is about 119,522 (NSO 1990). The culture is intimately interlinked with that of the Ibanag which is more dominant. During historic periods, Itawit populations gradually moved east of the Cagayan River near the foothills of the Sierra Madre where the people practice the slash-and-burn type of cultivation, and further south to the middle of the Cagayan Valley on the western side.

       The settlements while nucleated are smaller than those of the Ibanag, usually removed from urban centers. In the flood plains of the Pinacanauan river, agriculture is principally wet rice in paddy fields, corn, and cotton. Tobacco, the principal cash crop, is planted during the dry months in between rice and corn crops.