109-M Filipinos by end of this year
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2019 08:58:26 +0000
The Commission on Population has projected that the country’s population will reach 109 million by the end of this year.
During a forum on Family Planning and Responsible Parenthood, POPCOM-National Capital Region Director Lydio Espanol said that the country’s population increases by two million in one year. He also added that three babies are born every minute in the Philippines.
Espanol said that the poor and less educated have more number of children. He said that there is always that unplanned, unintentional pregnancy.
“Based on surveys, the average number of children in urban areas or cities is two but the actual is three. In rural areas, the desired number is three but the actual is five. So there are always unplanned pregnancies,” disclosed Espanol.
“There are several studies available that show that the more number of children in the family, the poorer those families will be,” he added.
Espanol said that the Philippines, in terms of population, was in “equal footing” with Thailand and South Korea in 1969 with the population registering around 31 to 35 million. Forty-nine years later, the country has an average annual increase of two million, while Thailand and South orea increase by only 200,000.
“Forty-nine years ago, we had almost the same in terms of the number of people in the country-around more than 30 million. But then, after 49 years, ours has tripled, the other neighboring countries like Korea and Thailand they only had double or less than double,” he said.
“Actually we do not have a strong family planning program after the Marcos administration. It was the time that we had a very strong family planning program but after that humina,” he added. (Analou de Vera)