The number of young Filipinos appears to be significantly lower in recent years with the country’s children population having seen a drop in the last two decades due to “lower levels of fertility” while that of the elderly people has seen a rise, the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) has said.
In a statement on Sunday, POPCOM said the Philippine population pyramid has been recording a lower percentage of younger people and is constricting at the bottom, which consists of Filipino children aged zero to 4.
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The POPCOM said that the the percentage share of Filipino children under 5 is now down to 10.2 percent in 2020 from 10.8 percent in 2015, and 12.6 percent in 2000 and the percentage in the population of Filipinos under 15 has also decreased from a 37% share in 2000 to 30.7% in 2020.
In 2020, Filipinos 60 years of age and older comprised 8.5 percent of the population, or 9.2 million and the year saw the doubling of the country’s aging citizens’ numbers from 2000, when they represented just 5.9 percent of the national population at 4.5 million while the “ dynamics of the Philippine population continue to see lower levels of fertility, as evidenced by the decline in numbers of children under 5 years old.”
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POPCOM Executive Director Juan A. Perez III said that the data presenting the lower number of children born since 2015 show “the effectiveness of the Philippines’ family planning program” further adding that Philippines might record an even lower figure in 2021.
