The Philippines has officially a total population of 109,035,343 according to the latest Census of Population and Housing.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared the figure through Proclamation No. 1179 that he issued on Tuesday, July 6.
The number represents the total number of persons living in the country as of 12:01 a.m. on May 1, 2020.
It also includes Filipinos in Philippine embassies, consulates, and missions abroad.
Since 2015, the population grew by 8,053,906. This puts the annual population growth rate at 1.63%, lower than the rate from 2010 to 2015 which was at 1.72%.
The most populated region in the country is Region IV-A (Calabarzon), with 16,195,042 people. Metro Manila comes in second with a population of 13,484,462.
Region III (Central Luzon) is the third most populated region with 12,422,172.
Together, these three regions account for 38.6% of the country’s population.
The Calabarzon region saw the biggest population growth since 2015, gaining 1,780,268 more people.
In terms of population growth rate, however, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao saw the biggest annual increase at 3.26% from 2015 to 2020.
The lowest annual population growth rate was observed in Eastern Visayas, which was at 0.50%.
The three least populated regions are Cordillera Administrative Region (1,797,660), Region XIII or Caraga (2,804,788), and Mimaropa (3,228,558).
“In light of the [COVID-19] pandemic, the [Philippine Statistics Agency] has proudly overcome unprecedented challenges to collect and produce high-quality data that are critical in decision-making for good governance, development planning, risk reduction and crisis response, social welfare programs, and business market analyses, among others,” said National Statistician Dennis Mapa.
He said his office had to contend with the pandemic as a challenge to its completion of the 2020 census. Lockdowns that started in March that year greatly affected many government programs.
The 2020 Census of Population and Housing is the 15th Census of Population since 1903. It is also the 7th Census of Housing since that year.
