1. PHILIPPINE
POPULATION SIZE AND
GROWTH RATE:
A BOON OR A BANE?
Raymond Vincent A. Adriano
Edwina M. Arceo
Vivian T. Dabu
Irish G. Sanchez
Mary Grace T. Santos
Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Clark
2. World Population
• 2010 - 6.8 billion
• 2025 - 8.1 billion
• 2050 - 9.3 billion
• 48% of the population worldwide lives on less
than $2 a day
3.
4.
5. Barriers to Economic Growth
• Insufficient capital formation
• Shortage of human resources and
entrepreneurial ability
• Lack of social overhead capital
• Constraints imposed by dependency on
the already developed nations
• Inefficient and corrupt bureaucracies
6.
7.
8. “….mass starvation would be
an eventual result of
“overpopulation.” This would be
so because population increases
geometrically, while food
production increases only
arithmetically.”
- Rev. Thomas Malthus
author of the 1798 work
An Essay on the Principle
of Population
9. Economic and Political implications
• Environmental degradation
• Carbon dioxide emissions
• Climate change
• Migration
• Urbanization
• Nutrition
• Sanitation
• Aging population
23. Lagman bill
• The present population of the country of 88.7
million has galloped from 60.7 million 17 years
ago. This makes the Philippines the 12th most
populous nation in the world today. The Filipino
women’s fertility rate of 3.05% is at the upper
bracket of 206 countries. With four babies born
every minute, the population is expected to
balloon to an alarming 160 million in 2038.
• It is worth noting, however, that available studies,
data and statistics show that the Filipinos are
responsive to having smaller-sized families
through free choice of family planning methods:
24. Lagman Bill
a. The desired fertility rate of Filipino women is 2.5
children per woman. However, the actual total
fertility rate is 3.5 or a difference of one child
because of the lack of information and absence of
access to family planning.
The current unmet need for contraceptives for
example is 23.15% for poor women and 13.6% for
women who are not poor (2003 National
Demographic and Health Survey)
25. Lagman Bill
b. 61% of currently married women do not want
additional children (2003 National Demographic
and Health Survey)
c. 50.6% of the youth want to have only two children
(2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey)
d. 97% of all Filipinos believe it is important to have
the ability to control one’s fertility or to plan one’s
family. It is significant to note that 87% of the total
respondents are Roman Catholic (February 2004
Pulse Asia Survey)
26. Lagman Bill
• In July 1991, the Social Weather Stations conducted a
survey that revealed that 97% of Filipinos want to have the
ability to control their fertility and plan their families.
• Notwithstanding these findings that favor smaller-sized
families, this bill is not a population control measure with
the sole objective of limiting population growth. It provides
for population development that aims to:
a) help couples/parents achieve their desired fertility size in the
context of responsible parenthood;
27. Lagman Bill
b. improve reproductive health of individuals
and contribute to decreased maternal
mortality rate, infant mortality and early
child mortality;
c. reduce incidence of teenage pregnancy and
other reproductive health problems; and
d. contribute to policies that will assist
government to achieve a favorable balance
between population and distribution,
economic activities and the environment.
28. Lagman Bill
• According to the UN Population Fund 2002 Report, “lower birth
rates and slower population growth over the last three
decades have contributed to faster economic progress in a
number of developing countries.”
• Moreover, the same Report disclosed that fertility declines
accounted for 1/5th of the economic growth in East Asia between
1960 and 1995. Additionally, it showed that countries that
invest in health, including reproductive health and family
planning, and in education and women’s development
register slower population growth and faster economic
growth.
• A consistent and coherent national population policy along with
sound monetary and fiscal policies and good governance could
propel our people toward sustainable human development.
29. The elements of reproductive
health care include:
1. Maternal, infant and child health and nutrition;
2. Promotion of breastfeeding;
3. Family planning information and services;
4. Prevention of abortion and management of
post-abortion complications;
5. Adolescent and youth health;
6. Prevention and management of reproductive
tract infections (RTIs), HIV/AIDS and other
sexually transmittable infections (STIs);
30. The elements of reproductive
health care include:
7. Elimination of violence against women;
8. Education and counseling on sexuality and sexual
and reproductive health;
9. Treatment of breast and reproductive tract
cancers and other gynecological conditions;
10. Male involvement and participation in
reproductive health;
11. Prevention and treatment of infertility and
sexual dysfunction; and
12. Reproductive health education for the youth.
31. “There are two sides to the oft-used title
of this column. The positive side: the size of
the population is a tremendous asset, both
as a source of manpower and as a base for
a domestic market on which the economic
growth of a country can be sustained,
despite periodic ups and downs in the global
market. Without a large population, many
of whom have been sufficiently educated
through the decades, the Philippines
would not be attracting such high-growth
sectors as electronic and semiconductor
manufacturing and business process
outsourcing.
32. It would not have been able to send abroad
millions of Filipinos to earn billions of
dollars that they remit back to the
Philippines. Without a large population, the
Philippines would not have been able to avoid
a recession in 2009, when most of our
neighbors with smaller populations suffered
negative growth rates in their GDP. The other
two countries in Southeast Asia that avoided a
recession are Indonesia and Vietnam, two
populous countries with large domestic
markets. Indeed, population matters.”
- Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas, PhD
Manila Bulletin, July 25, 2010
