|
By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
The population will be increasing
at the rate of 200 babies for every hour this year, making the
Philippines the most populated in Southeast Asia, the National
Statistical Coordination Board said Monday.
At present, Filipinos number
around 84 million.
Romulo Virola, the board’s
secretary-general, said the population growth rate of the
Philippines is above the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
average of 1.5 percent and is higher than that of Thailand,
Indonesia and Vietnam. The Philippines is lower than that of the six
other Asean countries, including Singapore, which is promoting
childbirth among couples. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and
Myanmar are the other members of the regional association.
Virola cited at least three
reasons for the country’s rising population: the poor’s lack of
access to modern family-planning methods, their need for more
children to do household chores or help in economic activities of
the family, and their reliance on guidance from the Catholic Church
on such methods, which the Vatican forbids.
In the latest 2000 population
survey, the population growth was 193 persons for every hour or
three persons a minute.
Available data from the 1990,
1995 and 2000 censuses show that the Philippine population grew
annually by 2.32 percent between 1990 and 1995, 2.36 percent between
1995 and 2000, and 2.34 percent between 1990 and 2000.
Based on the 2000 census,
population projections put the country’s growth rate at 1.97
percent between 2006 and 2007, and at 1.95 percent between 2007 and
2008. The midyear 2008 population growth is projected at 90.45
million, or equivalent to a population density of 266 per square
kilometer and an average population size of 2,154 for every barangay
or village.
On the average, Virola said, poor
families are larger than nonpoor families by more than one member.
Specifically, he added, 21 out of every 100 poor families had at
least seven members in 2003, compared to only six among the nonpoor.
“Members of large families are
less likely to reach college. Indeed, this should be cause for
concern for government and civil society—less access to education
among larger and poorer families gives them very little options and
makes it viciously difficult for them to escape from poverty
ever,” Virola said.
He said per capita expenditures
on education, medical needs and even recreation generally go down
with increases in family size.
|
