A positive demographic shift
First the good news: the Philippines’ fertility rate has been slowing down since 1993, and is at a more manageable 1.7 children per woman in 2025, from 1.9 in 2022. This, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, quoting the results of the latest National Demographic and Health Survey. Theoretically, this translates to a bigger share per capita of the country’s limited resources.
Even better news is how majority of our population—63.9 percent—are within the working age of 15 to 64 years old, that so-called “demographic sweet spot” that the country’s Commission on Population and Development (CPD) said could favor our socioeconomic indicators if handled well.
“The challenge is to sustain the accompanying benefits,” said Undersecretary Lisa Grace Bersales of the CPD, formerly known as the Population Commission. Government should focus on more substantive planning and investments on education, health, and skills development, as well as strategies that address the “persistent inequalities” especially in vulnerable sectors. Among poorer families, the fertility rate translates to 2.8 children per woman, compared to those from richer households, with a rate of only 1.1 child. The highest fertility rate of 3.1 children is seen among those with lower education levels, the same situation in adolescent girls who become mothers at ages 15 to 19.
Larger labor force
Resolving such inequalities across income and education level depends on how effectively government invests in its people, Bersales said. “Population and reproductive health policies and strategies must be explicitly integrated with socioeconomic development strategies. Education and access to information are still key in ensuring that Filipinos achieve the number of children they desire, when they want it,” she added.
To address the issue, the CPD called for intensified reproductive health education aligned with life skills, expanded access to adolescent-friendly health services, and stronger interventions to curb school dropouts, early unions, and poverty cycles.
Bersales also noted that although the country’s population growth rate has slowed a bit in recent years, it will continue to grow with its structure shifting toward a larger labor force over the next 15 years, creating opportunities for development.
“What will happen is that the working-age population—those aged 15 to 64—will increase, with projections reaching about 70 percent compared to around 64 percent now,” Bersales said.
Demographic sweet spot
This means the government must gradually recalibrate its priorities, moving from a heavy focus on child-centered services toward employment generation, skills development, and job matching for a growing working-age population, while still sustaining investments in education and nutrition, Bersales pointed out.
Just as crucial is to gauge future trends, and the need to train the young workforce on artificial intelligence which has been revolutionizing industries and economies.
At the same time, the government should look at population projections that show a steady rise in the number of senior citizens and the need to expand services for them, the CPD chief said.
But beyond maximizing the demographic sweet spot by investing on health-oriented policies, skills training, and productivity, Bersales urged government to ensure that its population policy remains human rights-based and noncoercive. The key is to focus on providing accurate information and access to family planning services rather than dictating family size, she added.
Indeed, there have been reports of quotas set for government population workers in the 1970s, with incentives like transistor radios given to women who’d agree to be ligated or fitted in with intrauterine devices without them being informed of their possible side effects.
Harsh economic realities
With nongovernment organizations and women’s groups taking the lead on reproductive health care in the 1980s, population policies swung sharply the other way: for years, some local officials and religious groups held hostage The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act or Republic Act No. 10354, before it was finally passed by Congress in 2012.
Government should thus take a stronger stand to implement the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in the school curricula under RA 10354 to prevent a similar debacle. As it is, the policy remains controversial, with fundamentalist religious groups and even a former Supreme Court justice opposing it on grounds of moral ethics and child protection. The CSE provides age-appropriate, scientifically accurate, and rights-based information on human development, relationships, and reproductive health that helps learners make informed decisions that could reduce teenage pregnancies and prevent gender-based violence.
While harsh economic realities may have forced the encouraging shift in the country’s demographic indicators, it is government initiative and political will that would determine how this trend plays out in the long run.
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