Demographics of the Philippines

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Demographics of Philippines, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.

According to Philippine government statistics and current census data, some 95% of the population is ethnically Malay, descendants of immigrants from the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, who arrived long before the Christian era. The most significant non-native 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. Small communities of expatriates, and Negrito forest tribes that inhabit the more remote areas of Mindanao, constitute the remainder.

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.

Ethnic Groups

  • Malay-Filipinos account for 95%, they form the bulk of the population and number around 80 million. They are descended from the Austronesians who settled in the Philippines over a thousand years ago. There are three sub-racial classifications that fall under this category. The first Filipino sub-race is the Proto-Malay, who came from Southern China and Taiwan. Their descendants are thought to be the present day Ivatans. The second Filipino sub-race is the Nesiot, or Indonesian. Although they are generally thought of as Austronesians, the possibility of their being Caucasoid is not being discounted. They are related to the Bataks of Indonesia. Their 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. All of the Nesiots exhibit slightly whiter skin and tall stature. The last sub-race in what is considered the 'pure' Malay. There are three primary wave migrations of the pure Malays. The 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 futher 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. Many live poverty stricken lives, though some can now be found among the middle class. Most are citydwellers, although a great number still live traditional lifestyles in the mountains and rural areas. Virtually many Malay-Filipinos are trilingual, speaking Tagalog, their native dialect, and some English.
  • Chinese Intsik in Filipino: form the most significant non-native element in the country. Most are successful and prosperous business people. They form part of both the upper and middle classes. Their primary languages are English, Chinese and Filipino. They number around 1.5 million. Chinese-mestizos included they would number close to 3 million. They are differentiated into two groups: Min Nan (Fukien) Chinese and Yueh (Cantonese). The Fukien Chinese form the vast majority of the Chinese population in the Philippines. They mostly form a part of the country's upper middle class, and are quite wealthy. They represent about 2% of the population, but have their hands on about 75% of all business transactions. Nevertheless, there do exist poor Chinese, many of them Cantonese and more recent immigrants from China. They may also be known as 'Chinatown Chinese'. See furtherdown, Chinese-mestizo
  • Spanish-Filipinos, Kastila in Filipino: There are approximately 17,000 descendants of Spanish colonists living in the Philippines (7,000 Basque and 10,000 Castillian). Their primary language is English, Spanish, and Filipino. Although these Filipinos have been taken into account in the last entry detailing all other smaller communities, the majority are integrated into the Spanish-mestizo upper levels of Filipino society.
  • Mestizos, Mistiso in Filipino: they form a tiny but economically and politically important minority. 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. Mestizos are categorized as follows:
    • Chinese-Mestizo, Tsinoy or Mistisong Intsik in Filipino: a combination of ethnic Malay and Chinese. They are usually light skinned, possess round eyes and Chinese faces. Much like the Chinese, most are successful and prosperous business people. They form part of both the upper, middle and lower classes. Some are also in the entertainment industry. Their primary languages are English, Chinese and Filipino. They number just over 1 million and are most concentrated in Manila (Binondo) and Pampanga.
    • Japanese-Mestizo, Mistisong Hapon in Filipino: a combination of ethnic Malay with Japanese or Okinawan. Many are descendants of the Japanese Catholics that fled Japan 300 years ago and are members of the lower class. Many exiled Japanese Christians, led by the Christian Samurai Takayama Ukon, settled in Dilao, Paco in 1614. Because of discrimination encountered, some fled to the mountains after World War II while many others changed their names in the attempts to assimilate. Many were also killed (c. 10,000 Japanese Mestizos and Japanese) while other were deported following World War II as an act of retaliation. Their sense of Japaneseness may take on extremes, some have completely lost their Japanese identity while others have "returned" to Japan, the homeland of their forebears. There is also a number of contemporary Japanese-mestizos, not associated with the history of the earlier established ones, born either in the Philippines or Japan. These latter are the resultant of unions between Filipinos and recent Japanese immigrants to the Philippines or Japanese and immigrant Filipino workers in Japan. Most Japanese-mestizos speak tribal languages and Filipino. There are believed to be between 100,000 and 200,000 Japanese-mestizos in the country, but no accurate figure is currently available. Significant numbers reside in Davao, Laguna, Pampanga and Baguio. They may also be known as Japinos, although this term is considered derogatory by many. Examples of Japanese-mestizos include Ferdinand Marcos (Imee Marcos's father), and Tamlyn Tomita.
    • American-Mestizo, Mistisong Amerikano in Filipino: a combination of ethnic Malay and American (regardless of race). They are also known as Amerasians. They can be found in the upper class, but also amongst the middle and lower classes as a result of the abandonment of their American fathers upon completion of military service and subsequent withdrawal of US forces. Much like Spanish-mestizos, for those whose American ancestry was Caucasian or Latino/Hispanic-American. The number of American-mestizos is thought to be between 20,000 and 30,000. Most speak Filipino and English. The majority are to be found in Ángeles City, which has the largest proportion of Amerasians in the Philippines [1], and also Manila and Olongapo City.
    • Other various types of mestizos from unions of Filipinos other nationalities may also exist; many of them are are also in the entertainment industry. Examples include basketball legend and former Senator Robert Jaworski and businessman Philippe L’Huillier, who have Polish and French roots, respectively. Iconic actor Fernando Poe, Jr. was of part-Catalan and Irish descent.
  • Indians and Pakistanis, Bumbay in Filipino: they are mostly merchants and belong primarily to the middle class. There are approximately 30,000 East Indians and half of them are Sindhis who left India after the British partitioned India and the other half is the Sikhs whom many of whom have traditionally been rural money-lenders. The Sindhi businessmen are often part of Manila’s rich elite. Most speak Filipino, Punjabi or Sindhi, and English. They (particularly the Sikhs) are collectively known as Bombay (büm'bäi) and 5-6, all of which are derogatory terms.
  • Arabs, Arabo in Filipino: they are the descendants of the missionaries that spread Islam throughout the Malay Archipelago (the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia). There are approximately 31,000 Arabs in the Philippines and they speak Arabic and Tagalog. They are overwhealmingly Islamic, though recent immigrants may be Christian Arabs, and are classified together with the Moros. Some have intermarried and simply became Moros. As for the Christian Arabs, many of them were of Levantine origin, mostly from Lebanon, Syria, and a few from Palestine. Philippine actresses such as Ana Roces (real name: Marinella Adad) and Dawn Zulueta (real name: Rachel Marie Salman Taleon) have Lebanese and Palestinian roots respectively. A huge wave of Levantine Christian immigration occurred during the late Spanish colonial era, spilling over to the early period of the American colonial era. Large numbers of these Arab Christian immigrants actually assimilated into the Spanish-mestizo upper class community through marriage.
  • Aeta, Ita in Filipino: Aetas are the pre-Malay inhabitants of the Philippines, closely related to the Papuans, and ethnically different from the other Filipinos. They are the aboriginal peoples of the Philippines, descendants of the Negritos and the Australoid-Sakais. 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. Most speak their tribal languages and have little or no understanding of Filipino. The government has sponsored educational programmes as well as encouraging school attendance, though many of them still enounter difficulties. They are also known by their other names, such as Aeta, in Zambales, Ita in Pampanga, Ati in Panay, Baluga in Abra and Pampanga, Dumagat in Aurora, and Remontados in Rizal and Quezon.

Other smaller communities of expatriates from various countries also exist and they include 110,000 Americans of any race (but excludes Military forces and Filipino-American mestizos). Most of them are either businessmen or missionaries; Caucasians from Europe, Canada, and Australia who sought economic and investment opportunities; 35,000 Indonesians, most of whom are either illegal immigrants, refugees, but also many students; around 30,000 Japanese and Koreans who are mostly recently arrived immigrants also seeking economic and investment opportunities. There are also thousands of Vietnamese who found refuge in the Philippines following the Vietnam War. Communities can be found Palawan. Some of these Vietnamese may be of mixed European (French colonist or American G.I.) and Vietnamese parentage. A lot have been able to integrate themselves into society and remain low key.

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 still heavily linked with those of the United States. Americans, which form a significant minority 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 noble man. From then onwards, Muslim princes carried on expeditions to propagate Islam. Simultaneously, the Spaniards under Feridnand 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 Sindhi, Punjabi, and Tamil 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 Negritos are the aboriginal peoples of the Philippines. In 1911, they were described as follows :

  • The men are about 4 ft. 10 in. average height, the women are shorter. Their colour is black, their skull decidedly round, their hair frizzy, their legs thin, their toes prehensile. They tatoo themselves and wear only a g-string. They have no fixed abodes but roam about in groups of a few families. They are skilful with the bow and in throwing stones, and they can easily kindle a fire, even in the wet season, by rubbing together two pieces of dry bamboo. Their food consisted principally of game, roots, and wild fruits. The women, who do all the work, collect wax and wild honey, which are their principal staples in trade. Few Negritos live to be fifty years of age.Template:Fn

The next people to come are called Indonesians (which may be related to the Papuans, rather to the Malays). These people are taller than the Malays, and have some Caucasoid features. Their descendants in the Philippines. Their descendants include the people of the province of Benguet, such as the Ibalois, the Kankane-ys, and the Itogons.

Some time between the coming of the Indonesians and the Malays, the Australoid-Sakai, and the Proto-Malays came. They are much smaller than both the Indonesians and the Malays, and were quickly absorbed by the Negrito and the Malay peoples.

The last native ethnic people, the Malays came from the south, in successive waves of immigration beginning in pre-historic times. They came in three successive waves, and are composed of 23 distinct groupings, varying widely in culture, language, and appearance. Their languages however belong to one common stock. The Moros were the last of the Malays to migrate to the islands; they came after their conversion to Islam. Slavery was common among them.

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.

According to Dr. H. Otley Beyer,a noted American anthropologist, the racial ancestry of Filipinos is as follows (that is, according to him, all Filipinos have their ancestry in the proportions below): Malay-40%, Indonesian-30%, CHinese-10%, Negrito-10%, Indian (Hindu)-5%, European and American-3%, and Arab-2%.

1903 census

In 1903 the population of the PhilippinesTemplate:Fn 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 twice as many people spoke Visayan 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: Christian Malay 91.5%, Muslim Malay 4%, Chinese 1.5%, other 3%

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

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