MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Population (PopCom) estimates that there will be 108,885,096 Filipinos by December 31, 2019.

The commission issued its projections on Friday, December 28, based on the latest population census of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2015. (READ: Philippine population to hit 142M by 2045) 

PopCom cited PSA data showing a steady decline in the number of births among Filipinos in 2017, while the number of senior citizens continuously increased over the years.  

In 2017, PSA recorded a total of 1,700,618 births, a 1.8% decline from the crude birth rate in 2016.

The number of Filipinos born per day also decreased from 4,730 in 2016 to 4,659 in 2017. PSA data also showed that there has been a decrease in adolescent births from 201,182 in 2016 to 196,478 in 2017. 

PopCom said the number of senior citizens or those aged 60 and above are expected to increase by 8.2% in 2019 from around 7.5% in 2015.

70-million PH workforce in 2019

The Philippine workforce is also expected to reach as much as 70 million by next year.

By the end of 2019, PopCom said Filipinos of working age will increase by 1.4 million to 70,121,863, while those outside of the working age are expected to also go up by 363,043 to reach 38,482,360. 

The dependency ratio – the number of dependents over the number of people of working age – will decrease from 55.5 in 2018 to 55 in 2019. PopCom said an “ideal” dependency ratio is 50, as a higher ratio means a heavier burden for workers who must earn enough to support themselves and at least one dependent. 

Still, the burden rests mostly on working Filipinos, because 18% of them are either unemployed or underemployed. PopCom said single mothers “probably carry the heaviest burden” because two-thirds of the work force are composed of males.

PopCom said “with the increasing work force, it becomes an increasing challenge to the government to accelerate its effort to create jobs and economic opportunities to optimize this demographic condition.”

“Failure to employ this massive work force means more economic burden on the working Filipinos and on limited government resources,” it added. – Rappler.com