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People
Cultural Legacy
Filipinos, the majority of whom are descendants of Malay peoples, occupy the Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia that is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands and islets. Those of mixed Filipino-Chinese descent result from contacts with China since the 10th century. Due to its unique history, there are also Spanish-Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. In addition, there are Chinese, American and Spanish minorities.
Its Spanish colonial legacy brought about not only additions to the country's ethnic composition but also impact on its religion. The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia that has a predominant Roman Catholic population. Still, there are minorities of Muslims. Areas populated predominantly by Muslims are currently being confronted with a violent Islamic movement.
Filipino is the national language, one of two official languages in the Philippines. English is the other. A number of regional or native languages and dialects are also spoken in the Philippines. All belonging to the Austronesian family, these languages are closely related and divided into eight major linguistic groups. Among them, Tagalog is the richest and has the most extensive written literature. The national language, Filipino, is based on Tagalog.
Human Development
The Philippines is a densely-populated country of around 94 million people. The population growth rate is 1.728 percent. The population of the Philippines has a healthy life expectancy at birth of 70.8 years - 67.89 for males and 73.85 for females, according to recent estimates. The infant mortality rate of Philippines is 21.45 deaths per 1,000 live births. The fertility rate is 3 children per woman.
About 2.8 percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures in this country; about 3.8 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to water and sanitation is generally adequate, especially in urban areas; however, access is more problematic in rural areas.
In the realm of education, the Philippines is one of the most advanced of Asian countries, having a high literacy rate. Reading and writing ability is found among 92.5 percent of the female population and 92.7 percent of the male population, for an average rate of 92.6 percent in the Philippines among people aged 15 and older.
A notable measure of human development is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is formulated by the United Nations Development Program. The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. The HDI places the Philippines in the medium human development category, at 97th place among 169 countries and territories.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief, www.countrywatch.com . See Bibliography for list of research sources.
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