Philippines: Philippines People Profile

The total population in Philippines was last recorded at 100.1 million people in 2014 from 26.3 million in 1960, changing 281 percent during the last 50 years. Population in Philippines averaged 59.53 Million from 1960 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 100.10 Million in 2014 and a record low of 26.27 Million in 1960. Population in Philippines is reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

To figure out how many people live in The Philippines in 2014, we can look at data provided by the Philippines National Statistics Office. Projecting this data forward, using the 1.89% growth rate, gives us a 2013 population of 98,734,798 and 2014 population of 100.6 million in The Philippines. The United Nations population projections are slightly lower, around 100.1 million. Based on the 2010 census results, the population increased nearly 16 million from the 2000 census results. The growth rate has slowed slightly from the previous census, down to 1.89% from 2.34%. The next census in the Philippines is scheduled for 2015.
Philippines Largest Cities

The Philippines' largest city is Quezon City, which contains 2,679,450 people. It forms a part of the wider Metropolitan Manila area, which is comprised of 16 cities and has an overall population of 11,553,427 people. To make things even more complicated, the entire Greater Manila urban area spills out beyond the boundaries of Metro Manila and is reported to contain around 25 million people – a quarter of the Philippines entire population.

Other major cities include Manila itself (pop: 1,660,714), Caloocan (pop: 1,378,856) and Davao City (1,363,337). Of these, only Davao City is outside of the Metropolitan Manila area.
Ethnicity, Religion and Language in the Philippines

Unsurprisingly for a country that is made up of many islands, the Philippines contains a diverse range of ethnic groups. The latest data available comes from the 2000 census, which reported the following breakdown:

Tagalog, 28.1%
Cebuano, 13.1%
Ilocano, 9%
Bisaya, 7.6%
Hiligaynon, 7.5%
Bikol, 6%
Waray, 3.4%
Other, 25.3%

Religion in the Philippines is heavily influenced by its history as a part of the Spanish Empire. As well as naming the country after its King (Philip II), Spain also exported its religion, and today around 80% of the country’s citizens are Roman Catholic Christians. Of the remaining people, 10% are from other Christian denominations and around 5% are Muslim, mainly based in the South West in the country.

Although the official language of the Philippines was, for many years, Spanish, the legacy of the American administration during the first half of the 20th century has been that its two official languages today are English and Filipino (derived from Tagalog).
Filipinos Overseas

As well as the approximately 100 million Filipinos living in the Philippines itself, there are estimated to be around 10 million Filipino people living abroad. Many have moved abroad temporarily to find work, but others have settled abroad permanently.

Given its close ties with America, it is not surprising that the United States is home to the largest group of overseas Filipinos - around 3.4 million. There are also large Filipino populations in the Middle East (1.1 million in Saudi Arabia, 600,000 in the United Arab Emirates and 260,000 in Qatar), Malaysia (900,000), Japan (350,000) and Australia (330,000). Interestingly, only 241,000 Filipinos live in Spain, the Philippines old imperial master.