Demographics of the Philippines

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As of July 1, 2005, the population of the Philippines is estimated to be 87,857,473.

The Aeta, who are known as the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines and constitute a distinct ethnic stock, number somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The overwhelming majority of the population, known as ethnic Filipinos, are made up of various ethno-linguistic groups descended from Austronesian-speaking migrants who arrived in successive waves to the Archipiealgo milennia ago. The most significant foreign ethnic minority are the Chinese, who have played an important role in commerce since the 9th century when they first arrived in the Philippines for trade. Mestizos, those of mixed race, form a tiny but economically and politically important minority.

The most widely spoken language is Filipino, which is based on Tagalog, although thirteen regional languages are spoken as vernaculars thorughout the Philippines. English serves as the primary lingua franca and as the language of commerce and the professions. Christianity is the main religion in the archipelago, with Roman Catholicism making up the majority. A small but significant minority profess Islam, particularly in the southern Philippines.

The people of the Philippines are known as Filipinos. Throughout the colonial era the term "Filipino" originally referred to only the Spanish and Spanish-mestizo minority. The definition, however, was later changed to include the entire population of the Philippines regardless of ethnic origin. Ironically, the term now somewhat excludes the Spanish-mestizo minority who are perceived by some Filipinos, and by many Spanish-mestizos themselves, to be foreign.

Contents

Ethnic Groups

Main article: Ethnic Groups of the Philippines

Aboriginal Filipinos
Negritos, (in Filipino, Ita or Aeta): the Aetas are descended from the Negritos and Australoid-Sakais who first settled the archipelago during the Ice Age. They are the poorest and most disadvantaged class of the Filipino population. Their numbers have been decreasing rapidly and are thought to number between 20,000 and 30,000, or 0.03% of the population. Most speak their tribal languages and have little or no understanding of Filipino. They are also known by other names.

Ethnic Filipinos
Ethnic Filipinos (in Filipino, Filipino or Pilipino): mainstream Filipinos form the bulk of the population, accounting for 95%. Invading Austronesian-speaking migrants, arrived in successive waves over a thousand years ago and settled throughout the entire archipelago, largely displacing the aboriginal Aeta inhabitants. Many live in the cities, although a great number still live traditional lifestyles in the mountains and rural areas. Many Filipinos are trilingual, and are able to speak one of over a hundred regional languages, the national language Filipino (based on Tagalog), and English.

Chinese
Chinese, (in Filipino, Intsik): the Chinese are the most significant minority in the Philippines. Although often regarded by Filipinos as outsiders or banyaga, many attest to the claim that 50% of all Filipinos have some traces of Chinese blood in their veins. Perceived as elitists and branded as rich by almost all Filipinos, there still exist poor Chinese, especially among the recent immigrants. Up to this day, the Chinese have their hands on 75% on all daily business transactions, which has lead to resentment by many Filipinos. The Chinese generally perceive their culture to be superior due to its long history. Although the Chinese has advocated endogamy within the Chinese population for years, there exists a significant Chinese-Mestizo group in the country.

Mestizos
Mestizos, (in Filipino, Mestiso or Mistiso): Filipinos of mixed race. They form a tiny but economically and politically important minority. Recent statistics indicate that the combined number of all types of mestizos constitute no more than 2% of the entire Filipino population. Mestizos in the Philippines may be of any race combination or ratio. Most Filipino mestizos are of the following mixtures; Filipino-Spanish/Mexican, Filipino-Chinese, Filipino-American or Filipino-Japanese.

Spanish-Filipinos
Spanish Filipinos, (in Filipino, Kastila): Spanish immigrants from both Spain and Mexico settled in the Philippines during the Spanish Colonial Era. During 1898 and the Marcos Era, many have immigrated to the United States. Most Spanish-Filipinos are Manila-based, controlling many of the city's service-oriented businesses, such as Globe Telecom (mobile communications), Manila Electric Company (electricity), Maynilad Water (water), ABS-CBN (telecommunications) and Philippine Long Distance Company (landline communications).

Americans
Americans, (in Filipino, Amerikano): the Americans who settled in the Philippines are overwhelmingly White, but there are also few Blacks who have intermarried with the Filipinos. Most of them are either resident businessmen, expatriate businessmen, or missionaries They number 110,000 in Manila alone, excluding temporary embassy officials and U.S. Military personnel.

Others
Other smaller foreign nationality groups also reside in the Philippines. See main article.

Religion

Main article: Religion in the Philippines

Religion in the Philippines plays a very important role in the Filipino Society. The Majority of the people belong to the Christian religion which makes up (94%) of the population.

The majority of Christians are Catholics with (83%); followed by Protestant with (9%); Islam with (5%); Buddhism and Hinduism make up the remainder with (3%).

Catholics and Protestants were converted during 425 years of Western domination by Spain and the United States. 377 years of Spanish rule was responsible for converting the majority of the people to Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism still subsists as a major religion. Often still, Catholic FIlipinos mix Catholic beliefs and traditions with beliefs in ghosts and other spirits. Protestant denominations were introduced to the Philippines primarily during the 37 years of American occupation. The current Philippine Protestant churches are linked with North American Churches. American minorities, living in the Philippines are mostly Protestant missionaries.

Islam was brought to the Sulu Archipelago in the 9th century by Makhdum Karim, an Arab trader, and to Mindanao island by Rajah Kabungsuwan, a Malaccan nobleman. From then onwards, Muslim princes carried on expeditions to propagate Islam. Simultaneously, the Spaniards under Ferdinand Magellan arrived, and arrested the growth of the Islamic religion in the Philippines. The religion was easily displaced from Luzon and Visayas, their people yet being in the first stages of proselytization to Islam, but in Mindanao and Sulu, the Islam religion was fully strong, and the Spaniards never made inroads in Mindanao. Most of Mindanao island remained independent of Spanish Rule.

Other religions include Mahayana Buddhism, followed by many Filipinos of Chinese descent. It is often mixed with Taoist and Confucianist beliefs, and Hinduism and Sikhism, followed by Filipinos of Indo-Aryan descent.

Animism is still prevalent maong the highland peoples of Cordillera and Mindanao.

Language

Main article: Languages of the Philippines

A total of one hundred seventy-two native languages and dialects are spoken, all belonging to the Austronesian linguistic family. Since 1939, in an effort to develop national unity, the government has promoted the use of the official national language, Filipino, which is based on Tagalog. English is the predominant non-native language. Other foreign languages spoken are Chinese (Hokkien) and Cantonese Chinese, among the Chinese and Chinese-mestizo population; Arabic and Malay among some members of the Muslim population; and Spanish preserved and spoken by some families within the Spanish-mestizo minority.

History

The first people to come to the Philippines are the Negritos Negrito1911, descendants of Australoid immigrants from the Asian mainland. They are related to the Orang Asli people of Malaysia and to the Andamanese islanders of the Andaman islands. They are free of any connection with the rest of the Filipinos, being descendants of more latter Austronesian invaders.

Following the Negritos are another Australoid people, the Sakai, closely followed by Levo-Malays (or Proto-Malays), who came from the Yunnan plateau of Southern China. Levo-Malays, also called 'Indonesian' in many Philippine textbooks, are related to the Dyaks, Kadazans and many othet Bornean hilltribes, being leftovers of those Levo-Malays who continued to migrate towards the Philippine archipelago. The Levo-Malays' descendants include the highland tribes of the Cordilleras, such as Kallahans, Bontocs, Ifugaos, Aplais, Kankanae-y, etc, the Gaddang, Itawes, and other tribes of the Cagayan Valley, as well as the tribal people of highland areas in Mindanao, such as the Mandayas, Manobos, Blaans, Tbolis, and Kalagans. The Levo-Malays exhibit slightly whiter skin and tall stature.

It must be noted that Levo-Malays and Deutero-Malays are descendants of Austronesians living in the vast Yunnan plateau of China.

After the Levo-Malays or Indonesians came to the Philippine archipelago, the Deutero-Malays descended from the Yunnan plateau, and as they venture towards the Malay archipelago, their remnants, which include the Cham people, who settled in the vast Indochinese peninsula. As the Deutero-Malays continued to venture towards the Pacific Islands, remnants of these Deutero-Malays were left, which became the ancestors of the present-day Malaysians, Filipinos, and Indonesians. There were three primary waves of immigrations that brought the Austronesian Deutero-Malsys to the Philippines. They first gave rise to the Tinguianes, Sambals, Buranuns, and other hinterland tribes in the Philippines. The second gave rise to the Moros, which constitute the tribal people of Maranao, Maguindanao, Tausug, Sama, Subanen, and Yakan. The third wave of Malayan immigrations gave rise to the bulk of the Philippine population today. From Sumatra came the Pampangos and Ilocanos, from Malacca and mainland Peninsular Malaysia came the Tagalogs, from Makassar came the Bicolanos and the Visayans. These tribes were further subdivided into Tagalogs, Cebuanos, Waray-Waray, Hiligaynons, Kiniray-as, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, and many other Christian lowland groups. Further immigrations from Malaysia, although not necessarily pure Malay were the Badjaos, an animist tribe whose present domain range from Sabah in East Malaysia to the Philippines.

Soon after the native migrations, the next people to come to the Philippines are the Chinese, closely followed by the Hindus, Persians, and Arabs.

The Spanish Colonial Era has had influenced the racial mixture of the country. It has been said that during the Spanish colonial period one-third of the population of Luzon were of Spanish origin, although this has not been verified. Spanish texts often distinguished Indios of the Philippines into two types- Luzon Indios and Bisaya-Mindanao Indios. The former, they say, are less rough, more graceful, and more Spanish looking than the latter, which they said, were indistinguishable with the Malays from the Malay peninsula. It has also been said that in Laguna (during the Spanish era), most of the people are 'good looking', which may be attributed to the Spanish blood present in the people, 'due to its nearness to the capital'. Reference: Les Philippines, Jean Mallat, 1846. This Manila-centric and racist remark is contradicted by Antonio de Morga who says that "All the natives of these islands [the Visayas], both men and women, are well-featured, of a good disposition, and of better nature, and more noble in their actions than the inhabitants of the islands of Luzon and its vicinity." Reference: Successos de las Islas Filipinas, Antonio de Morgaebook

According to Dr. H. Otley Beyer,a noted American anthropologist, the racial ancestry of Filipinos is as follows: Malay-40%, Indonesian-30%, Chinese-10%, Negrito-10%, Indian (Hindu)-5%, European and American-3%, and Arab-2%.

Presently, the Philippines has been home to approximately 100 different ethnic groups and nationalities. Europeans (particularly Spaniards, Dutch, and Portuguese), Americans, Chinese, Persians, Arabs, Indo-Aryans, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and ethnic Indonesians have intermingled with the native Filipinos, creating a unique and distinct Filipino Mestizo culture.

1903 census

In 1903 the population of the PhilippinesPhilippines1911 was 7,635,426, including 56,138 foreign-born. In the 100 years since the 1903 census, the population has grown by a factor of eleven.

By city or towns exceeding 10,000:

There were 13,400 villages, nearly 75% of which had fewer than 600 inhabitants.

By race or ethnicity:

  • Malay: 7,539,632 (98.7%)
  • Chinese: 42,097 (0.6%)
  • Mestizo: 15,419 (0.2%)
  • Negrito: 23,511 (0.3%)
  • Caucasian: 14,271 (0.2%) [Spaniards and White US Servicemen]
  • Negro: 505 (0.01%) [Black US Servicemen]

The ethnic Malay population divided by language:

  • Christian
    • Visayan: 3,219,030
    • Tagalog: 1,460,695
    • Ilocano: 803,942
    • Bicol: 566,635
    • Pangasinan: 343,686
    • Pampangan: 280,984
    • Cagayan: 159,648
  • Muslim
    • Moro: 277,547
  • Igorot
    • Igorot: 211,520

1941

In 1941 the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000. Manila's population was 684,000.

The number of Chinese living on the island had risen to 117,000. There were also around 30,000 Japanese living in the Philippines, with some 20,000 of them residing in Davao, Mindanao, and 9,000 Americans lived in Luzon.

By then, some 27% of the population could speak English as a second language, while the number of those able to speak Spanish had further fallen to 3%. Tagalog has been the official language (since 1937), though more people spoke Cebuano at that time.

Population, July 2004 est.

Population: 86,241,697 (July 2004 est.)

Age structure:

  • 0-14 years: 36.2% (male 15,625,480; female 15,028,498)
  • 15-64 years: 59.9% (male 25,206,467; female 25,485,482)
  • 65 years and over: 3.9% (male 1,427,238; female 1,846,809) (2003 est.)

Median age:
total: 21.8 years
male: 21.3 years
female: 22.4 years (2002)

Population growth rate: 1.92% (2003 est.)

Birth rate: 26.3 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Death rate: 5.6 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Net migration rate: -1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2003 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 24.98 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 21.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.)
male: 27.9 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 69.29 years
male: 66.44 years
female: 72.28 years (2003 est.)

Total fertility rate: 3.29 children born/woman (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 9,400 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 720 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Filipino
adjective: Philippine

Ethnic groups: Filipino, with Chinese, Indo-Aryan, Spanish, and American minority


Religions: Roman Catholic 83%, Protestant 9%, Muslim 5% (See Islam in Philippines), Buddhist and other 3%

Languages: two official languages - Filipino (formerly Pilipino, based on Tagalog) and English; eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligayno, Bikol, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 95.9%
male: 96%
female: 95.8% (2003 est.)

Notes

Related articles

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