The Philippine census of population and housing is a regularly occurring and official inventory of the human population as well as housing units in the Philippines. The population is enumerated every 5 years (beginning on 1960, except in 2005 where it was moved to 2007 due to budgetary constraints) and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats (congressional apportionment) and government program funding.
Contents
The census is administered by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
History
The first census in the Philippines in 1591, was based on tributes collected and yielded about 666,712 people in the islands. In 1799, Friar Manuel Buzeta estimated the population count as 1,502,574. However, the first official census in the Philippines was carried out by the Spanish government pursuant to a royal decree calling for the counting of persons living as of the midnight of December 31, 1877. This was followed by two more censuses, the 1887 census that yielded a count of 6,984,727, and the 1898 census that yielded 7,832,719 inhabitants .
The first census conducted by the U.S. military forces took place in 1903 to fulfill Public Act 467 which was approved by the United States Philippine Commission on October 6, 1902.
A four-volume description of this census was on hand some years ago at the National Archives in San Bruno, California, but the volumes appear to have since been misplaced.
Statistics
For years between the censuses, the PSA issues estimates made using surveys and statistical systems. As of Census 2015, the national population is 100,981,437.
Based on the census figures, population growth averaged 1.72% per annum between 2010 and 2015.
Santos said the Philippines’ population expanded from 1960 to 1970 at an annual rate of 3.01 percent. This slowed to 2.75 percent for the decade from 1970 to 1980, and further to 2.34 percent from 1990 to 2000.
From 2001 to 2006, the Philippine population growth rate was similar to Malaysia with an average 2 per cent growth rate; but higher than Vietnam, 1.4 percent from 2001 to 2006; Indonesia, 1.3 percent; and Thailand, 0.8 percent.
The next census is scheduled for the year 2020.