Demographics of thePhilippines
Population pyramid of thePhilippines as of 2020 census[1]
Population	112,729,484 (2024 census)[2]
Growth rate	0.80% (2020–2024)[2]
Birth rate	12.4 births/1,000 population (2021)[3]
Death rate	8.0 deaths/1,000 population(2021)[4]
Life expectancy	72.66 years
• male	68.72 years
• female	74.74 years(2011 est.)
Fertility rate	1.9 children born/woman(2022 est.)[5]
Infant mortality rate	24.0 deaths/1,000 live births
Net migration rate	−1.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population(2011 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	29.98% (male 17,006,677/female 16,036,437)
15–64 years	64.22% (male 35,879,693/female 34,885,763)
65 and over	5.80% (male 2,754,813/female 3,635,271)(2021 est.)
Sex ratio
Total	1 male(s)/female
At birth	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.04 male(s)/female
15–64 years	1 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.76 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	Filipinos
Major ethnic	Visayan (Cebuano, Waray, Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Karay-a, Aklanon, Masbatenyo, Romblomanon) 31.6%, Tagalog 28.1% (2000 census)
Minor ethnic	Ilocano 9%, Bikol 6%, Kapampangan 3%, Pangasinan 2%, Zamboangueño 1.5% & others 23.3%(2000 census)
Language
Official	Filipino andEnglish[6]
Spoken	Recognized regional languages:Tagalog,Cebuano,Ilocano,Hiligaynon,Bicolano,Waray,Kapampangan,Pangasinan,Maranao,Maguindanao,Zamboangueño Chavacano andTausug Protected auxiliary languages:Spanish and Arabic

Demographic features of the Philippines include population density,ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population. ThePhilippines annualized population growth rate between the years 2020 and 2024 was 0.80%.^[2] According to the2024 census, the population of the Philippines is 112,729,484.^[2] The first census in the Philippines was held in the year 1591 which counted 667,612 people.^[7]

The majority of Filipinos arelowlandAustronesians,^[8] while theAetas (Negritos), as well as otherhighland groups form a minority. The indigenous population is related to the indigenous populations of theMalay Archipelago. Some ethnic groups that have been in the Philippines for centuries before Spanish and American colonial rule have assimilated or intermixed. This is the case with theSama-Bajau ethnicity which possessAustroasiatic ancestry and theBlaan people who possessPapuan ancestry, while ancient immigration integrated someIndian ancestry to the precolonial Indianized kingdoms in the islands. Meanwhile, Spanish era censuses from the 1700s, record that 2.33% of the population wereMexicans^[9][10] and 5% were mixedSpanish-Filipinos or pure Spanish-Filipinos.^[11][12] Records from the Philippine government shows that pure Chinese were 1.35 million and mixed Chinese-Filipinos composed about 20% of the population.^[13] Up to 750,000 people from theUnited States of America also live in the Philippines.^[14][15] They represent 0.75% of the total population, while an additional 250,000 about 0.25% of Filipinos areAmerasians of half Filipino and half American descent.^[16][17] Thus making the percentage of the population having either full or partialAmerican descent amount to 1% of the Philippines' demographics. Other ethnic groups include theArabs who intermixed withMuslim Filipinos and the Japanese who form parts of the population.^[18]

The most commonly spoken indigenous languages areTagalog andCebuano, with 23.8 million (45 million speakers asFilipino) and 16 million speakers, respectively. Nine other indigenous languages have at least one million native speakers:Ilocano,Hiligaynon,Waray,Bicolano,Kapampangan,Pangasinan,Maranao,Maguindanao, andTausug. One or more of these are spoken as a mother tongue by more than 93% of the population.Filipino and English are the official languages, but there are between 120 and 170 distinct indigenous Philippine languages (depending on expert classifications).

The first census in the Philippines was in 1591, based on books collected. The books counted the total founding population of the Spanish-Philippines as 667,612 people.^{[19]: 177 [20][21]} 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders,^[22] at different times: around 15,600 individuals were Latino soldier-colonists who were cumulatively sent from Peru and Mexico and they were shipped to the Philippines annually,^[23][24] 3,000 were Japanese residents,^[25] and 600 were pure Spaniards from Europe.^[26] There was a large but unknown number ofSouth Asian Filipinos, as the majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were fromBengal and India,^[27] addingDravidian andIndo-Aryan speaking South Indians andIndo-European speakingBengalis into the ethnic mix.

The rest wereAustronesians andNegritos. With 667,612 people, during this era, the Philippines was among the most sparsely populated lands in Asia. In contrast, Japan during that era (the 1500s) hada population of 8 million and Mexico had a population of 4 million, which was huge compared to the Philippine's 600,000. In 1600, the method of population counting was revamped by the Spanish officials, who then based the counting of the population through church records.

Stephanie J. Mawson, by rummaging through records in the archives of Mexico^[9] discovered that the Spaniards were not the only immigrant group to the Philippines; Peru and Mexico too sent soldiers to the islands,^[9] and in fact outnumbered the Spaniards who immigrated to the Philippines.^[9]

In 1798, the population of Luzon or Luconia was estimated to be around 600,000 with the other islands, unknown. 200,000 of the 600,000 population were of mixed-raced descent of either Spanish, Chinese or Latin-American admixture. 5,000 enlisted soldiers on that year, were of South American descent, while 2,500 were pure Spanish officers. There were 20,000 new Chinese immigrants.^[28] The book, "Intercolonial Intimacies Relinking Latin/o America to the Philippines, 1898–1964 By Paula C. Park" citing "Forzados y reclutas: los criollos novohispanos en Asia (1756–1808)" gave a higher number of later Mexican soldier-immigrants to the Philippines, pegging the number at 35,000 immigrants in the 1700s in a population of only 1.5 million, thus forming 2.33% of the population.^[10][29]

In 1799, Friar Manuel Buzeta estimated the population of all the Philippine islands as 1,502,574.^[30] Despite the number of Mixed Spanish-Filipino descent being the lowest, they may be more common than expected as many Spaniards often had Filipino concubines and mistresses and they frequently produced children out of wedlock.^[31]: 272

In the late 1700s to early 1800s, Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga, an Agustinian Friar from Spain, in his Two Volume Book: "Estadismo de las islas Filipinas"^[11][12] compiled a census of the Spanish-Philippines based on the tribute counts (Which represented an average family of seven to ten children^[32] and two parents, per tribute)^[33] and came upon the following statistics:

The Spanish-Filipino population as a proportion of the provinces widely varied; with as high as 19% of the population of Tondo province^[11]: 539 (The most populous province and former name of Manila), to Pampanga 13.7%,^[11]: 539 Cavite at 13%,^[11]: 539 Laguna 2.28%,^[11]: 539 Batangas 3%,^[11]: 539 Bulacan 10.79%,^[11]: 539 Bataan 16.72%,^[11]: 539 Ilocos 1.38%,^[12]: 31 Pangasinan 3.49%,^[12]: 31 Albay 1.16%,^[12]: 54 Cebu 2.17%,^[12]: 113 Samar 3.27%,^[12]: 113Iloilo 1%,^[12]: 113 Capiz 1%,^[12]: 113Bicol 20%,^[34] andZamboanga 40%.^[34] According to the data, in the Archdiocese of Manila which administers much of Luzon under it, about 10% of the population was Spanish-Filipino.^[11]: 539 Summing up all the provinces including those with no Spanish Filipinos, all in all, in the total population of the Philippines,Spanish Filipinos and mixed Spanish-Filipinos composed 5% of the population.^[11][12]

Meanwhile, government records show that 20% of the Philippines' total population were either pure Chinese or MixedChinese-Filipinos^[13][35]

The first official census was in 1878, when the population as of midnight on December 31, 1877, was counted. This was followed by the 1887 census, with the 1898 census not completed. The 1887 census yielded a count of 5,984,727 excluding non-Christians.^[36]

In the 1860s to 1890s, in the urban areas of the Philippines, especially at Manila, according to burial statistics, as much as 3.3% of the population were pure European Spaniards and the pure Chinese were as high as 9.9%.^[37] The Spanish-Filipino and Chinese-Filipino mestizo populations may have fluctuated. Eventually, everybody belonging to these non-native categories diminished because they were assimilated into and chose to self-identify as pure Filipinos.^[37]: 82 Since during the Philippine Revolution, the term "Filipino" included anybody born in the Philippines coming from any race.^[38][39] That would explain the abrupt drop of otherwise high Chinese, Spanish and mestizo percentages across the country by the time of the first American census in 1903.^[37]

In 1903 the population of the Philippines was recounted by American authorities to fulfill Act 467. The survey yielded 7,635,426 people, including 56,138 who were foreign-born.^[40]

According to the1920 United States census, there were 10,314,310 people in the Philippines.^[41] 99 percent were Filipino; 51,751 were eitherChinese orJapanese; 34,563 were of mixed race; 12,577 wereCaucasian; and 7,523 wereAfrican.^[41]

The 1939 census was undertaken in conformity with Section 1 of Commonwealth Act 170.^[42] The Philippine population figure was 16,000,303.^[43]

In 1941 the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000.^[44]Manila's population was 684,000.^[45]

By then, some 27% of the population could speak English as a second language, while the number of Spanish speakers as first language had further fallen to 3% from 10 to 14% at the beginning of the century. In 1936, Tagalog was selected to be the basis for anational language.^{[46][unreliable source]} In 1987, the Filipino language, a standard language based on Tagalog, was imposed as the national language and as one of the two official languages alongside English.^[47]

In 1948, just two years after the independence of the Philippines from theUnited States of America, the country conducted its first post-war national census, recording a population of 19,234,182.

The country ranks 18th in the world with 33,704,741 people, an increase of 899,211 people compared to 1965 data.^[48] Comparing the 1941 population of 17,000,000, the increase nearly doubled, reaching 16,704,749 in 67 years.

In 1960, the government of the Philippines conducted a survey on both population, and housing. The population was pegged at 27,087,685. Successive surveys were again conducted in 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1990, which gave the population as 36,684,948, 42,070,660, 48,098,460, and 60,703,206 respectively. In 1995, the POPCEN was launched, undertaken at the month of September, The data provided the bases for the Internal Revenue Allocation to local government units, and for the creation of new legislative areas. The count was made official by then President Fidel Ramos by Proclamation No, 849 on August 14, 1995, The population was 68,616,536.

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority^[49][50][51]

Notable events in Filipino demographics:

• 1918-1919 –Spanish flu pandemic
• 1941-1945 –Second World War
• 2020-2024 –COVID-19 pandemic

As the finalized, instead of provisional, live birth data for 2022 was published on January 5, 2024,^[53] while the corresponding finalized death data was published on February 6, 2024,^[54] it's better to take the monthly provisional updates with a 12-month delay. For example, regarding the latest provisional update at the end of July 2024, the data within the reference period from January through July 2023 would be reliable, while the data from August on would likely be underregistered & would face large revision during future months.

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January - December 2023	1,448,522	694,821	+753,701
January - December 2024	1,204,070	548,821	+655,249
Difference	-244,452 (-16.87%)	-146,000 (-21.01%)	-98,452
Source:[55]

^[57][58]

Total fertility rate (TFR) (wanted fertility rate) and crude birth rate (CBR):

More than half of the children born every year in the Philippines areillegitimate, and the percentage of illegitimate children is rising by 2% per year.^{[59][60][61][62]} The percentage of unwed woman in live-in relationship is consistently rising e.g. from 5.2% in 1993 to 18.8% in 2022, i.e. over 30 years the percentage of women in live-in increased nearly 360%; and the percentage of women in a married arrangement is consistently decreasing every year e.g. from 54.4% in 1993 to 36.2% in 2022, i.e. over 30 years 33% less woman chose to marry.^[63]

The following table, based on the annual official data sourced fromPhilippine Statistics Authority, shows the growing annual trend ofillegitimate child births by percentages:

First timesingle mothers are mainly due to theteenage pregnancy among girls in the 17 to 19 years old age bracket, thus getting trapped in thecycle of poverty andabuse.^[76] Some females becomeprostitutes in the Philippines after they become unwed single mothers^[77] fromteenage pregnancy. As of 2016 more than half of Filipina women did not want additional children, but access to contraceptives was limited, and many people were hesitant to use what contraceptives were available due toopposition from the Catholic Church.^[78][79] The reasons for the high illegitimate birthrate and single motherhood include the unpopularity of artificial contraception^[80] inadequatesex education, delays in implementingbirth control legislation and amachismo attitude among many Filipino males. There are three million household heads without a spouse, two million of whom were female (2015PSA estimates).

Between 2010 and 2014, 54% of all pregnancies in the Philippines (1.9 million pregnancies) were unintended. Consequently, 9% of women between 15 and 19 years of age have begun childbearing, and every year there are 610 000 unsafe abortions. In 2017,modern contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in "the Philippines was 40% among married women of reproductive age and 17% among unmarried sexually active women" and "Forty-six percent of married women used no contraceptive method in 2017 and 14% a traditional method." The "unmet need for family planning' which is the lack of access of contraceptives to women do not want to have more children or wish to delay having children was 17% among married women and 49% among unmarried and among unmarried only 22% women were able to access modern contraceptive methods. "As a consequence of the low contraceptive met need, 68% of unintended pregnancies occur in women not using any method and 24% in those using traditional methods" and the rest had to resort to unsafe traditional methods.^[81]

The Catholic Church in Philippines opposes sex before or outside marriage, and the use of modern contraceptive and the passing of laws allowing for divorce. The Catholic religion that was introduced by Spanish colonial era Catholicfriars was adapted through a process ofenculturation.^[82] Hence, there is a gap between the [relatively more orthodox]scriptural Catholic religion and the version practiced by Filipinos in daily life.^[82] 84% Filipinos are Catholic, and what Filipinos actually do in practice is different from what they believe in,^[82] i.e. Filipinos practice a liberal cultural attitude towards sexual relationships while also contrastingly practicing orthodox Catholic religious belief which opposes the modern scientific contraceptives and laws based on the modern values, resulting in lack of access to family planning methods, stigmatization of medical abortions, a high number of unwanted pregnancies, lack of access to safe modern medical abortions, high and still rising trend of illegitimate newborn birth rate.

The law of the Philippines continues to differentiate and discriminate between filiation (recognition of the biological relationship between father and child) and legitimacy (legally considered a legitimate child), national law still continues to label the "nonmarital births" as "illegitimate", which has been criticized by the social and legal activists for the constitutional stigmatization and denial of equal legal rights.

Source:UN World Population Prospects^[83]

Total fertility rate (TFR) and other related statistics byregion, as of 2013:^[85]

This article needs to beupdated. The reason given is: 2020 ethnic group statistics by PSA is now available. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2023)

The majority of the people in the Philippines are related toAustronesian peoples. According to the CIA Factbook, the largest ethnic groups as of 2020 are theTagalogs (26%), theBisaya people (14.3%), theIlocano people (8%), theBicolano people (6.5%), theWaray people (3.8%), theKapampangan people (3.0%), thePangasinan people (1.9%), and theMaguindanao people (1.9%), among other local ethnicities (18.5%).^[86] Theindigenous peoples of the Philippines form a minority of the population. Other large ethnic groups include Filipinos ofJapanese,Indian,Chinese,Spanish, andAmerican descent. There are more than 175 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines, each with their own, identity, literature, tradition, music, dances, foods, beliefs, and history, but which form part of the tapestry ofFilipino culture. The latest censuses did not take account of ethnicity, and the only census that included questions on ethnicity is of the 2000 census.

Nevertheless, a 2019 Anthropology Study by Matthew Go, published in the Journal of Human Biology, using physical anthropology, estimated that, 72.7% of Filipinos are Asian, 12.7% of Filipinos can be classified as Hispanic (Latin-American Mestizos or Austronesian-Spanish Mestizos), 7.3% as Indigenous American, African at 4.5% and European at 2.7%.^[87] However, this is only according to an interpretation of the data wherein the reference groups, which were cross checked to the Filipino samples; for the Hispanic category, wereMexican-Americans, and the reference groups for the: European, African, and Indigenous American, categories, were:White Americans,Black Americans, andNative Americans from the USA, while the Asian reference groups were sourced from Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese origins.^[87]

In contrast, a different anthropology study using Morphoscopic ancestry estimates in Filipino crania using multivariate probit regression models by J. T. Hefner, while analyzing Historic and Modern samples of Philippine skeletons, paint a different picture,^[88] in that, when the reference group for "Asian" was Thailand (Southeast Asians) rather than Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese; and the reference group for "Hispanic" wasColombians (South Americans) rather than Mexicans,^[88] the historical and modern sample results for Filipinos, yielded the following ratios: Asian at 48.6%, African at 32.9%, and only a small portion classifying as either European at 12.9%, and finally for Hispanic at 5.7%.^[88]

The total number of immigrants and expats in Philippines as of the 2010 census is 177,365.^[89] By country:^[90]

According to theKomisyon sa Wikang Filipino, there are 135 ethnic languages in the Philippine archipelago, each spoken by the respective ethno-linguistic group, except for the national Filipino language which is spoken by all 134 ethno-linguistic groups in the country. Most of the languages have several varieties (dialects), totaling over 300 across the archipelago. In the 1930s, the government promoted the use of the Tagalog language as the national language, and called the new Tagalog-based language as the national Filipino language, becoming the 135th ethnic language of the country.^{[47][failed verification][91][failed verification]}Visayan languages (Cebuano, Waray, Hiligaynon, etc.) are widely spoken throughout theVisayas and in most parts ofMindanao.Ilokano is thelingua franca ofNorthern Luzon excludingPangasinan.Zamboangueño Chavacano is theofficial language ofZamboanga City andlingua franca ofBasilan.

Filipino and English are the official languages of the country for purposes of communication and instruction.^[6] Consequently, English is widely spoken and understood, although fluency has decreased as the prevalence of Tagalog in primary and secondary educational institutions has increased.

ThePhilippine Statistics Authority in October 2015 reported that 80.58% of the total Filipino population wereRoman Catholics, 10.8% wereProtestant and 5.57% wereIslamic.^[92] Although the 2012 International Religious Freedom (IRF) reports that an estimate by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) in 2011 stated that there were then 10.3 million Muslims, or about 10 percent of the total population however this is yet to be proven officially.^[93] In 2000, according to the "World Values Survey", 1.8% wereProtestant Christians and 10.9% were then irreligious.^{[94][dubious –discuss]} Other Christian denominations include theIglesia ni Cristo (one of a number of separateChurches of Christ generally not affiliated with one another),Aglipayan Church,Members Church of God International, andthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Minority religions includeBuddhism,Hinduism, andJudaism.Roman Catholics and Protestants were converted during the four centuries of Western influence by Spain, and the United States. Under Spanish rule, much of the population was converted to Christianity.

Orthodox Christianity also has a presence in the Philippines. The Orthodoxy was brought over byRussian andGreek immigrants to the Philippines. Protestant Christianity arrived in the Philippines during the 20th century, introduced by American missionaries.

Other religions include Judaism,Mahayana Buddhism, often mixed with Taoist beliefs,Hinduism,Sikhism, andIndigenous Philippine folk religions.

Education in the Philippines has been influenced by foreign models, particularly the United States, and Spain.^[95][96] Philippine students enter public school at about age four, starting from nursery school up to kindergarten. At about seven years of age, students enter elementary school (6 to 7 years). This is followed by junior high school (4 years) and senior high school (2 years). Students then take the college entrance examinations (CEE), after which they enter university (3 to 5 years). Other types of schools include private school, preparatory school, international school, laboratory high school, and science high school. School year in the Philippines starts from June, and ends in March with a two-month summer break from April to May, one week of semestral break in October, and a week or two during Christmas and New Year holidays.

Starting in SY 2011–2012 there has been a phased implementation of a new program. The K to 12 Program covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education (six years of primary education, four years of junior high school, and two years of senior high school [SHS]).^[97]

• Cristian Capelli; et al. (2001)."A Predominantly Indigenous Paternal Heritage for the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples of Insular Southeast Asia and Oceania"(PDF).American Journal of Human Genetics.68 (2):432–443.doi:10.1086/318205.PMC 1235276.PMID 11170891. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on February 14, 2010.
• Frederic H. Sawyer (1900).The Inhabitants of the Philippines. Library of Alexandria.ISBN 978-1-4655-1185-0.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• 1903 Census of the Philippine Islands, Volumes1Archived September 18, 2021, at theWayback Machine,2Archived September 17, 2021, at theWayback Machine,3Archived September 17, 2021, at theWayback Machine,4Archived September 17, 2021, at theWayback Machine

 This article incorporatespublic domain material fromThe World Factbook (2025 ed.).CIA. (Archived 2011 edition.)

• "Index of Demographic Statistics (principally 2000 Philippine census)".Philippine Statistics Authority. Archived fromthe original on June 4, 2008. RetrievedDecember 17, 2005.
• "The Philippines – Demographic Statistics".The Ultrecht faculty of Education. Archived fromthe original on March 23, 2007. RetrievedApril 3, 2007.
• "University of the Philippines population institute". Archived fromthe original on April 15, 2014. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2013.
• "Greeks in the Philippines and their contributions to the country". hri.org. July 1998.

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