Fewer marriages, delayed pregnancies during COVID-19, and an increase in family planning methods have resulted in the lowest childbirths in the Philippines in 2020 in the last 34 years.
The births were lowest in over three decades, said the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom). It said in a statement that there were only 1,516,042 registered births in the country in 2020.
This has also formed part of the report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released in June 2021.
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These births are the lowest number recorded in 34 years or since 1986, when only 1,493,995 Filipinos were born.
The births in 2020 were lower compared to 2019 by around 157,881 or 9.43% and there were 1.675 million births in 2019.
According to Popcom there were fewer marriages in 2020 with only 240,183 weddings registered which were 44% lower than 431,972 in 2019.
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Popcom Executive Director and Undersecretary for Population and Development Juan Antonio Perez III said that the decline was on account of the combined impacts of fewer marriages, women delaying pregnancies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in use of modern family planning methods.
The country’s fertility rate stands at 2.5 births per woman, from a high of 6 in the 1960s. (AW)
