The country’s population is projected to increase to 104 million this year as 1.5 million babies are expected to be born, the Commission on Population (PopCom) said yesterday. “The Philippines’ population is 102.4 million at the end of 2015. But this year, it is expected to increase to 104 million,” PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III told The STAR. Perez noted the country’s fertility rate, which pertains to the “number of children that a woman wants to have in her lifetime,” had historically been going down. From 1.9 in 2010, it became 1.7 in 2015. “We’ll see if it goes below 1.7 (this year). That means people are choosing to have less children more quickly. That can be attributed to economic situation,” he added. Women usually want to have two to three children, while men aspire to have three to four. But according to Perez, the increase in the population is driven primarily by 23 million women aged 15 to 49 who are of reproductive age. Read more here
Quite a lot already are but at least the economy is still expanding and that should translate into jobs even if they are poorly paid jobs.
