Demographics
The Philippines consists of 7107 islands, with a land area of 300 000 square kilometers. Its population, as of 1 August 2007, was placed at 88 574 614, giving a population density of 295 per square kilometre Among the 14 regions of the country, Calabarzon (Region IV-A) had the largest population, with 11.7 million, followed by National Capital Region (NCR), with 11.6 million and Central Luzon (Region III), with 9.7 million. These three regions comprised more than one-third (37.3%) of the Philippine population.
Based on the 2000 census figure of 76.5 million, the average annual population growth rate of 2% for the period from 2000 to 2007 is the lowest recorded for the Philippines since the 1960s. The country's population is predominantly young, with the 0-14 year age group representing 33.8% and those aged 65 years and above comprising 4.4%. There is an almost equal number of males and females. The crude birth rate stands at 20.5 per 1000 population and the crude death rate at 4.8 per 1000 population. Overall life expectancy is 67 years, 64 years for males and 70 years for females.
Political situation
The Philippines is a democratic and republican state subscribing to the presidential form of government, with three branches: the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The country has a unitary form of government and a multiparty political system. Executive power is vested in the President, who is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Cabinet members are the heads of agencies and assist the President in drafting executive laws, policies and programmes of government. The Constitution ensures direct election by the people for all elective positions from the President down to the members of the barangay councils.
In 1991, the Local Government Code transferred some of the powers of the national Government to local government officials. The code devolved basic services, including health, giving responsibility to local government units. The country is made up of political local government units (LGUs) of provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. A local chief executive heads each LGU. Administrative autonomy enables the LGUs to raise local revenues, to borrow and to determine types of local expenditure, including expenditures on health care.
Socioeconomic situation
The Philippine economy in 2007 was at its strongest, with the gross domestic product (GDP) real growth rate for the year averaging 7.3%, the highest in 31 years. The economy continued to keep pace with population growth in the fourth quarter of 2007, as per capita GDP grew from 3.4% to 5.3%.
The challenge for the Government is to enable these economic gains to be felt by the poorer sectors of society. The 2006 official poverty statistics revealed an increase of 2.5 percentage points to 26.9% from 24.45 in 2003, meaning a total of 4.7 million poor families in 2006 compared with the 4.0 million estimated in 2003. In terms of population, the number of poor Filipinos reached 27.6 million in 2006, 16% more than the 23.8 million estimated in 2003, while food-poor individuals increased to 12.2 million, 14% more than in 2003. In the presence of the country’s gains in economic growth, the Government's move to realign the national budget towards social services is a good opportunity to focus on the education and health needs of the population in tandem with an effective population management programme.
The gender gap appears to be in favour of girls as far as participation in basic education, technical-vocational education and training and higher education are concerned. There is a need for the Government and other education stakeholders to look more seriously at the low completion and retention rates among boys in the school system. Although indicators to reflect gender equality, such as the country' Gender Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) reflect gains, these do not necessarily translate into positive measurable changes in the roles of and status of women, given the continuing incidence of violence against women, the predominance of female child-abuse victims, the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and female forced labour, among others.
The slow decline in maternal mortality means that the country is unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goal maternal mortality target or 80% access to reproductive health services by 2015. The reasons include the inadequate access to integrated reproductive health services, such as contraceptives, family planning and responsible-parenthood education, by women, including poor adolescents, and men.
Vulnerabilities and hazards
There is constant concern about the Philippines' high population growth rate and it being a limiting factor for broad-based growth and reduction of poverty.
There is a hidden threat from HIV and AIDS; although prevalence is still below 0.1% of the population, there was a 20% increase in the number of reported cases from 2004 to 2006.
Due to its geographical location, the country faces various natural disasters, such as typhoons, landslides, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.