Population and

Poverty

The Real Score

Poverty is a complex phenomenon, and many factors are responsible for it. Rapid population growth alone cannot explain poverty. Bad governance, high wealth and income inequality and weak economic growth and high fertility rates, especially among the poor, do exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it.

Filipino women across all socio-economic classes have expressed their desire for fewer children. But many particularly the poor and less educated, have more children than they want and are unable to achieve their desired number of children.

An unequivocal and coherent national policy-backed by an adequately funded family planning program that provides accurate information and endless access to methods of contraception of choice- is pro-poor, pro-women, pro-people and pro-life.

What Macro Data

show

Population growth in the Philippines declined slowly from 3.0% per annum in the early 1970s to 2.5% in the mid-1980s, then levelling to 2.36% in the 1990’s and remaining at this rate today.

The leveling of the Philippines population growth decline in the late 1980s through 1990s has resulted in a population size that is larger than the United Nations medium variant population projections. The UN projected RP’s population to reach 86 million by 2010; in fact, that size would already be reached by 2005.

By comparison, Thailand and Indonesia’s population growth rates which were similar to the Philippines in the early 1970s are down to1.4% and 1.5%, respectively. Likewise, while Thailand’s poverty incidence is down to 9.8% and Indonesia’s to 18.2%, the Philippines poverty incidence remains high at 33%.