81.2 Million Filipinos
The National Statistics Office (NSO) placed the Philippine population at 79.5 million at the start of 2002. This number is expected to grow by 1.7 million or over 2 percent annually to 81.2 million by the end of 2002. This makes the Philippines the world's 14th most populous country in the world behind China, with 1.3 billion people; India, 1 billion; United States, 288 million; Indonesia, 218 million; Brazil, 176 million; Pakistan, 149 million; Nigeria, 147 million; Russia, 143 million; Bangladesh, 136 million; Japan, 127 million; Mexico, 100 million; Germany 82 million; and Vietnam, over 81 million. About 93 percent of the Philippine population is Christian, while the rest belongs to Islam and other religions. In 1799, Spanish historians said there were only 1,502,574 people living in the Philippines.

Population To Double in 28 Years
The Makati Business Club said that with an annual population growth rate of 2.36 percent, the total number of Filipinos would climb from 80 million at present to 97 million by 2010 and double to 160 million in 28 years.

34 Million Voters
As of 1998, there were 34.2 million registered Filipino voters who were grouped into 174,420 polling precincts in the whole country.

Half A Million More Men
Contrary to popular beliefs that women were as twice as many as men in the Philippines, the NSO said there are in fact more men than women in the country. In its latest estimate for 2002, the NSO said there were some 40 million Filipino men and 39.5 million Filipino women, resulting in a population discrepancy in sex of half a million.

Women Live Longer
Life expectancy is estimated at 72.2 years for Filipino women and 66.9 years for Filipino men. Around 38 percent of the population is younger than 15 years old and 28 percent belongs to the 15 to 24 age bracket. Population experts claim it would take 25 years before the Philippine population reaches its peak.

More Single Men Than Single Women
In the 2000 population census, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said that nearly 53 percent of the 25 million single people in the Philippines were males while only 47 percent were females. However, around 76 percent of the 2.6 million widowed persons were females and only 24 percent were males.

Half of Women Use Contraceptives
In its Family Planning Survey in 2001, the NSO said about 49.8 percent of married Filipino women, aged 15 to 49 years old, was using contraceptives. The NSO concluded that women in poor households were less likely to practice family planning than those in higher income families in the same manner that women who lacked formal education were less likely to observe birth control practices than those who at least had some schooling.

Majority of Filipinos Oppose Divorce

A survey conducted by local poll firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) in the fourth quarter of 2002 showed that 50 percent of its 1,200 respondents nationwide were opposed to divorce while only 36 percent agreed that divorce "is usually the best solution when a couple can't seem to work out their marriage problems."

The same survey showed that 50 percent of the respondents disapproved of cohabitation before marriage while only 35 percent agreed with the statement "It's a good idea for a couple who intend to get married to live together first."

At the same time, 61 percent of the respondents agreed while only 19 percent disagreed with the statement "Married people are generally happier than unmarried people." Around 93 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement "Watching children grow up is life's greatest joy."

91 Percent Proud to Be Filipinos
In a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) in November 2001, 57 percent of the 1,200 respondents said they were very proud to be Filipinos while 34 percent claimed they were proud of their national identity. Only 9 percent said they were not proud and 1 percent claimed they were not proud at all of becoming Filipinos. The respondents also cited the following qualities of the Filipinos: God-centered, industrious, faithful, has convictions, responsible, peaceful and law-abiding, and loving and caring.

Happiest People in Asia
Despite the many problems hounding the Philippines, Filipinos still consider themselves as among the happiest people in the world. Results of regional surveys conducted by MTV-Asia, ACNielsen and the Economist magazine have indicated that Filipinos are the happiest people in Asia.

But in the World Values Survey conducted by University of Michigan in 1998, the Philippines was ranked 12th among 54 countries in the world in terms of happiness index. Among Asian countries, it was ranked first. According to the survey, the top ten happiest nations in the world were Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Ireland, Switzerland, Great Britain and Venezuela.

World's 5th Largest Christian Population
According to the book Top 10 of Everything, the Philippines had the world's 5th largest Christian population. As of 2000, the Philippines reportedly had 72.225 million Christians, comprising 93 percent of its total population then. Countries with larger Christian populations than the Philippines were the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and China. Most Filipinos remain Catholics. The Protestants comprise only 8 percent of the population although they were growing at a faster rate than any other religion in the country.

32,000 Evangelical Churches
The Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches said that it had around 32,000 member-churches in the 1990s, which were expected to have risen to 50,000 by the end of 2000. About 27,000 of these evangelical churches have been established only in the past 25 years. About 1,400 American Christian missionaries were in the Philippines to help propagate the Gospel.

97 Percent of Filipinos Believe in God
A survey, mentioned by the Economist magazine, showed that 97 percent of Filipinos believe in God while 65 percent feel extremely close to Him. "This is more than double the percentage of the two runners-up in the survey - America and Israel," the Economist said. (Source: The Economist)

562,808 Marriages
According to the NSO, 562,808 Filipino couples were married in 1997 alone. In the same year, 339,400 people died while 1,653,236 babies were born in the country.

412 Annulment Suits Every Week
As of 2002, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) said it was receiving 412 marriage annulment suits every week.

28,563 Died of Accidents
The Department of Health (DoH) reported that in 1997, 49,962 people died of heart diseases while 28,563 people died because of accidents. The other leading causes of death during that year were tuberculosis and pneumonia. The most common diseases in the country were diarrhea, pneumonia, bronchitis, influenza, hypertension and tuberculosis.

17,493 Government Positions
The Commission on Election (COMELEC) said that as of June 2002, there were 17,493 elective government positions in the country, with only about 15 percent held by women. The bureaucracy, however, had more women employees. As of 1997, there were 741,808 Filipino women working for the government, compared with only 636,836 men.

The Department of Labor and Employment said that in January 2001, the overall unemployment rate was higher among women at 10.3 percent compared with 9.4 percent among men. But if women were serving as heads of families, they were earning higher at P135,400 annually, compared with P121,003 received by men.

218 Congressmen
The head of government is President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who ascended to presidency via a military-backed people's revolt on January 21, 2001. She appointed Senator Teofisto Guingona as her vice-president.

The Philippine Congress has two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 24 seats while the House of Representatives has 218 members, five of whom are party list representatives.

The bureaucracy also employs 79 provincial governors and an equal number of vice governors, 114 city mayors and the same number of city vice mayors, 730 provincial board members, 1,496 municipal mayors and an equal number of town vice mayors, and 12,240 municipal councilors. The numbers exclude barangay officials. The next national elections will be held in May 2004.

30.2 Million Jobs
Of the 50.2 million people aged 15 years old and above, 35.052 million or 69.9 percent belong to the labor force. According to the National Statistics Office (NSO), there were 30.186 million Filipino workers as of April 2002, 11 million of whom were employed in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector; 14.3 million in the services sector; and 4.82 million in the industrial sector.

1.2 Million Fishermen
In particular, 9.788 million were employed in agriculture, hunting and forestry; 1.237 million in fishing; 136,000 in mining and quarrying; 2.904 million in manufacturing; 114,000 in electricity, gas and water sector; and 1.67 million in construction.

301,000 Bankers
Some 1.445 million Filipinos were employed in government; 5.77 in wholesale, retail and repair; 2.104 million in transportation, storage and communication; 680,000 in hotels and restaurants; 913,000 in education; 301,000 in banks and financial institutions, 355,000 in hospitals and social institutions; 552,000 in real estate, renting and business activities; 877,000 in personal services; and 1.339 million in household services

14.7 Million Salary Earners
In terms of source of income, about 14.711 million Filipinos were salary-earners while 11.379 million others were self-employed. Another 4.096 million were considered unpaid family workers.

1.4 Million Professionals
In terms of occupation, there were 9.227 million laborers and unskilled workers; 6.17 million farmers, forestry workers and fishermen; 3.175 million officials of government institutions and executives, managers and supervisors of private companies; 3.107 million workers in retail and wholesale trade; 2.677 service workers and shop and market sales workers; 2.147 million plant and machine operators; 1.367 million professionals; 1.335 million clerks; 850,000 technicians and associate professionals; and 130,000 others in special occupations.

290,000 IT Professionals
According to the government, there were 290,000 professionals working for the country's information and technology (IT) sector as of 2002.

113,743 Policemen
As of 2002, the Philippine National Police had an authorized strength of 113,743 members, including 69 chief superintendents (one-star general); 11 police directors (two-star), 3 police deputy director-generals (three-star), and 1 police director-general (four-star).

330,000 New College Graduates
The Commission on Higher Education reported that as of 1998, there were 1,185 universities and colleges in the country serving more than 2 million students. In 1998, some 331,827 students graduated from college; 90,880 of them with a degree in Business Administration; 40,611 in Engineering; 36,181 in Medical Science; and 25,038 in Mathematics and Computer Science. They were supposed to join the labor force but not all of them ended up getting the jobs they have been trained for.

2 Million College Students
As of 1998, 2,067,965 students were enrolled in Philippine colleges and universities. These included 620,681 students who were enrolled in Business and related courses; 299,226 in Engineering; 316,293 in Education; and 166,329 in Mathematics and Computer Science. Students who were enrolled in two- or three-year technical or vocational courses were not included in the counting.

2,323 Foreign Students
According to the Commission on Higher Education, there were 2,323 foreign students enrolled in Philippine schools in the school year 2000-2001, down from 5,284 enrollees five years ago. Most of these foreign students were Americans, Koreans and Taiwanese.

17.3 Million Public School Students
According to Senator Ralph Recto, the public education system would be lacking some 49,212 teachers and 44,716 classrooms by 2003 to accommodate some 536,000 new students and fill the void in the previous years. Total enrollment in 36,234 public elementary schools and 4,422 public high schools is expected to reach 17.335 million students by 2003. There were only 375,952 public classrooms by the end of 2002.

12.7 Million Elementary School Students
As of 2001, some 12.7 million students were enrolled in elementary schools; 11.8 million of them in public schools and only 927,289 in private schools. Some 5.4 million students were enrolled in high schools; 4.2 million of them in public schools and 1.2 million in private schools.

440,000 Teachers
As of 2001, there were 331,827 elementary school teachers and 109,845 high school teachers.

7 Million Filipinos Abroad
According to the Philippine Senate, some 7 to 8 million Filipinos live and work abroad, 2.5 million of them in the United States. There were 105,000 Americans in the Philippines in 1999.

The Philippine Overseas and Employment Administration (POEA) said that in 2001 alone, 866,590 Filipinos left the country on legitimate working visas to work abroad. This translates to 2,374 Filipinos leaving the country each day. OFWs sent a total of US$6.23 billion in dollar remittances to the Philippines in 2001.

2.4 Million Filipino-Americans
According to the US Census 2000, there were 2.4 million Filipino Americans in the US, comprising the second largest Asian group next only to the Chinese Americans. However, there are some who say that the actual number of Filipino-Americans could exceed 3 million. More than 1 million Filipino Americans live in San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles in the west coast.

192,000 Tourists to the US
According to the US embassy in Manila, some 192,000 Filipinos visited the US on non-immigrant visas in 2001 alone. A number of Filipino tourists tried to stay there and find work but were deported back to the Philippines.

19 Percent of Filipinos Want to Migrate
A survey conducted by Pulse Asia in March and April 2002 showed that 19 percent of its 1,200 respondents wanted to migrate to another country because opportunities were lacking in the Philippines. The desire to migrate from the Philippines was stronger among upper classes. The survey said that 31 percent of its respondents belonging to ABC wanted to live in another country.

1.2 Million Passports Annually
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issues about 1.2 million passport booklets annually. In the first quarter of 2002, there was a shortage of passports because the number of Filipinos who went abroad for work suddenly surged. The POEA said that from around 2,300 in the previous quarters, the number of OFWs leaving the country each day surged to 2,700 in the first quarter of 2002. The DFA imposes a daily quota of 2,000 passports for individual applicants and 1,500 passports for travel agencies.

204,900 Seafarers
Of the total number of Filipinos who left the country on working visas in 2001, 661,639 were land-based workers while 204,951 were seafarers. Filipino seafarers man about 20 percent of international vessels in the world.

Top destinations of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are Saudi Arabia, which hired 190,732 Filipinos in 2001; Hong Kong, 113,583; Japan, 74,093; Singapore, 26,305; Kuwait, 21,956; and Italy, 21,641. Only 10,000 Filipinos were hired in the US but the number excluded 2.5 million Filipino immigrants who were already there.

2.7 Million Filipino Immigrants
A Commission of Overseas Filipinos study showed that there were 2.7 million Filipino immigrants around the world as of 2002. The figure includes 1.89 million immigrants in the US; 200,000 in Canada; 170,000 in Japan; and 70,000 in the United Kingdom.

51,031 Migrants in 2000
According to the Bureau of Immigration, 51,031 Filipinos migrated to other countries in the year 2000 alone. Of this number, 31,324 Filipinos went to the US; 8,245 to Canada; 6,468 to Japan; 2,298 to Australia; 522 to Germany; 174 to the United Kingdom; and 1,970 to other countries.

US$6.2 Billion Remittances
Dollar remittances sent by OFWs amounted to US$6.235 billion in 2001. About US$5.142 billion of the total amount was sent by land-based OFWs while US$1.093 billion came from Filipino seafarers. Some US$3.2 billion or over half of total remittances came from the United States. The figure excluded dollar remittances that were not sent through the regular banking system.

Richest in New York
According to the 1990 United States Census, the Filipino-Americans living in New York (perhaps the world's most prosperous city) had the highest median income among all ethnic groups. The census revealed that in 1990, there were 43,229 Filipino Americans in New York who had a median income of about US$45,000, surpassing those of European-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Afro-Americans.

15,000 Nurses in the UK
According to British Ambassador to the Philippines Paul Dimond, there were 15,000 Filipino nurses in the United Kingdom as of June 2002. The number is growing, he added. He also disclosed that the British embassy has issued 30,000 visas to Filipinos in 2001 alone, with an acceptance rate of 95 percent among applicants. About 300,000 Filipino nurses reportedly left the country to work abroad in 2001.

150,000 Entertainers in Japan
As of 1998, there were 150,000 Filipino women working as entertainers in Japan. Many of them were vulnerable to abuse and some driven to prostitution.

154,000 Household Maids in Hong Kong
According to The Economist magazine, Filipino women were serving as domestic helpers or "amahs" in 154,000 households in Hong Kong as of 1998. The report added that Filipino women comprised 40 percent of non-Chinese amahs in Hong Kong. Over half of Filipino amahs in Hong Kong have college degrees, and some even hold master's degree in education.

Filipino household maids are also present in Singapore, Taiwan, and the Middle East. Filipino caregivers are in the United States and Canada.

32,000 Teachers as Household Helps
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said that as many as 32,000 Filipino teachers had left their profession in the country to work as household maids and nannies abroad.

389,818 American Tourists
Data from the Department of Tourism showed that in 2001 around 1.671 million foreign travelers visited the country, 44 percent of whom went here for holiday, 25 percent to visit friends and relatives, 18 percent on business, and the rest to attend conventions and for other purposes.

By country of residence, the US topped the list, with 389,818 travelers accounting for 23 percent of all tourists. The US was followed by Japan with 343,021 travelers; South Korea, 205,788; Hong Kong, 134,254; Taiwan, 84,644; Australia, 68,253; United Kingdom, 59,100; Canada, 54,851; Singapore, 44,010; Germany, 40,286; Malaysia, 29,564; South Asian countries, 20,114; Middle East countries, 18,480; China, 14,533; Thailand, 14,472; France, 13,847; Netherlands, 13,422; Indonesia, 12,630; and Switzerland, 12,204.

Italy sent 8,962 visitors; New Zealand, 7,768; Denmark, 7,741; Sweden, 7,296; Norway, 6,589; Austria, 6,531; Spain, 5,614; Belgium, 5,432; South American countries, 3,083; Vietnam, 3,058; Guam, 2,746; Ireland, 2,306; Eastern European countries, 2,189; Finland, 2,009; Brunei, 1,783; and African countries, 1,631. The number of visitors from other countries was less than 1,000 each.

Average Age of Tourists - 40
Almost 55 percent of all foreign tourists in 2001 had visited the country in the past. Stating that they were in repeat visits were nearly 76 percent of all Singaporean, 69 percent of Australian, 67 percent of American and British, 64 percent of German and 57 percent of Japanese travelers.

Nearly 65 percent of the foreign visitors in 2001 were male and the rest female. Of the group, only Canada had more female visitors, accounting for 50.3 percent. Female visitors from Japan comprised only 19.7 percent while female American visitors accounted for 44.3 percent.

The average age of foreign tourists in the Philippines in 2001 was 40 years old. Visitors from the US had an average age of 45; Canada, 43; Australia, 42; UK, 42; Japan, 41; Germany, 41; Taiwan, 40; Singapore, 39; Hong Kong, 37; and Korea, 34.

By age group, foreign visitors aged under 15 years old in 2001 comprised 8.8 percent of the total; 15 to 19, 2.3 percent; 20 to 24, 4.2 percent; 25 to 34, 19.9 percent; 35 to 44, 24 percent; 45 to 54, 21.9 percent; 55 to 64, 11.1 percent; 65 and above, 6 percent. Others did not state their age.

About 64 percent of all foreign visitors were independent travelers and only 19 percent went on package tours. The rest did not state their travel arrangements. Only 2 percent of Singaporean; 4 percent of American, Canadian and Australian; 10 percent of German; 26 percent of Japanese; 33 percent of Taiwanese; 38 percent of Hong Kong; and 45 percent of Korean visitors went to the Philippines on package tours.

8 Percent of Tourists - Students
In terms of occupation, nearly 33 percent of the foreign visitors were engaged in professional, managerial and administrative services; 7 percent in clerical or sales services; 1 percent in military or public services; and 1 percent in industry sector. About 8 percent of the foreign visitors in 2001 were students; 4, percent housewives; and 3 percent, pensioners or retirees. Over 41 percent of the tourists did not state their occupation.

Only 31 percent of the foreign guests checked in at hotels, 12.5 percent rented houses or apartments, and 18 percent stayed with relatives and friends. A significant 38 percent of the tourists did not state their type of accommodation in the country.

Among top foreign visitors, about 39 percent of the American tourists stayed with relatives and friends, 15.6 percent rented houses and apartments, and only 9 percent stated that they checked in at hotels. About 36 percent did not state their type of accommodation. Like the American visitors, many Canadian, European and Australian tourists stayed with relatives and friends or rented houses and apartments.

11,784 Hotel Rooms in Metro Manila
In 2001, the average occupancy rate among DOT-endorsed hotels in Metro Manila was 55.85 percent. The 15 deluxe hotels had an average occupancy rate of 58.4 percent; six first class hotels, 54.3 percent; 32 standard hotels, 52.5 percent; and six economy hotels, 41.1 percent.

These DOT-endorsed hotels in Metro Manila had combined 11,784 rooms in 2001. In particular, deluxe hotels had a total of 6,874 rooms; first class hotels, 1,779 rooms; standard hotels, 2,770 rooms; and economy hotels; 361 rooms. Guests spent an average of 2.73 nights at these hotels.

Foreign backpackers could be classified among the 1.106 million independent travelers who came to the Philippines without package tours or among the 728,545 tourists who traveled for holiday. They were among the 439,855 travelers aged 15 to 35 years old or 139,590 foreign students and minors. They were also among the 208,418 foreign travelers who rented houses and apartments or 301,294 who stayed with relatives and friends.

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