Philippine population reaches 84 million level

Philippine population reaches 84 million level

MANILA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) — The Philippine population has reached 84 million and is expected to double in the next 29 years, a Philippine official said Tuesday.

“Our country’s annual growth rate is 2.36 percent. If in 2000 we had a population of 76.5 million and we grow by at least 1.8 million a year, then by now there should be around 84 million Filipinos,” Population Commission executive director Tomas Osias told reporters.

Osias said the huge population would have been beneficial to the country if it is at parallel with its economic growth, however, “which is not the case for the Philippines.”

With the country’s current economic situation, the government hardly provides all Filipinos with food, education, health, employment, housing and other social services, Osias said.

“Hence, it is important that presidential candidates include population control in their priority agenda,” he added.

Earlier, Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said the Philippine population growth is beneficial to the Philippine economy as it boosts private consumption and provides more labors to be oversea Filipino workers, who remitted 7.6 billion US dollars back home in 2003.

Overseas remittances account for about 10.8 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product and about 15 percent of current account receipts.

According to the government, there were 7.4 million overseas Filipino workers as of 2001, composed of 2.7 million permanent workers, 3.1 million temporary workers, and 1.6 million irregular workers.