Philippines

The Philippines’ total surface area stretches about 300,000 square kilometers, and 298,170 square kilometers of this island while the remaining 1,830 square kilometers is water.  This makes the country the seventh largest country in terms of land area in Southeast Asia,  and majority of this land area is rural,  measuring about 282,120 square kilometers. The remaining land area that is only about 12,151 square kilometers is urban.

In 2021, 24.2% of the total land area of the Philippines is forest covered.  Data from the World Bank shows that this has been continuously increasing since 2010. One of the attributions to this is the implementation of the National Greening Program in the Philippines. However, deforestation is still rampant in the country in which agricultural expansion is identified as an important driver of this in a study by Gabriel (2023).

The Philippines has a humid equatorial climate, which means that the country experiences high temperatures and heavy rainfall. The high humidity level in the country is due to the warm moist trade winds, sea surface temperatures, vegetative cover, and abundant rainfall. The annual rainfall in the country varies geographically with an average of 960 mm. It is governed by the southwest monsoon during summer, and northeast monsoon and tropical cyclones in the winter. From June to September, heavy rainfall is expected to be concentrated to the west side of the country, while rainfall is predominant in the eastern region facing the Pacific Ocean from October to March. The El Niño Southern Oscillation also affects the country which brings strong periodic droughts. April and May are the hottest months in the Philippines, while December, January, and February are the coldest.

Data from the World Bank shows that the agricultural land area in the Philippines has an increasing trend. In fact, in 2021, there was a total of 126,830 square kilometers of land devoted to agriculture to produce permanent crops. This is almost half (42.5%) of the total land area of the country. The country’s arable land, on the other hand, has been consistent at 55,900 square kilometers from 2013 to 2021. This is the land dedicated for production of temporary crops such as rice and corn.

In the most recent census update by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2020, it was found that about 26% or one in every four of the population in the Philippines reported Tagalog as their ethnicity. This makes it one of the major ethnicities in the country along with Bisaya, Ilocano, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Bikol, Waray, Kapampangan, and Maguindanao and Pangasinan. About 7.6% of the population were classified as Indigenous Peoples (IPs) by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), 5.0% are Muslims identified by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), 1.5% are IPs and Muslims identified by both NCIP and NCMF, and 0.2% are foreign ethnicities.

The Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia, making Christianity the national religion of the country.  From the 2020 Census of Population and Housing of PSA, it was revealed that Roman Catholics account for 78.8% of the household population in the country, followed by 6.4% of the population that is affiliated with Islam, and 2.6% of the population affiliated with Iglesia ni Cristo.

 In 2022, the Philippines  had a total population of about 115,559,009, making it the second most populated country in Southeast Asia next to Indonesia. Almost half or about 48% of the population in the same year are in urban areas, while the remaining 52% are in rural areas. Generally, it can be inferred from the World Bank data on the annual population growth rate of the Philippines that the population in the country has been slowly declining. As a matter of fact, its population growth rate in 2022 was only at 1.5%, which was the lowest annual percentage growth since the 1947.  Some of the underlying causes affecting this that have been analyzed by experts include women’s preference for planned pregnancies, issues of domestic violence, lack of access to family planning and health services, and economic and financial aspects.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the global economy, including the Philippines, which was manifested in the decrease in the earned GDP of the country. However, the Philippine economy rebounded and grew 7.6% in 2022, making it to the world’s top five fastest-growing large emerging markets that year.  In 2022, the Philippines earned US$ 404.35 Billion that is equal to US$ 3,499.107 per capita.  Upon ranking all countries according to its GDP, the Philippines ranked 40 and is one of the major economies by gross domestic product in 2022

In the same year, the agriculture sector of the Philippines accounted for only about 9.5% of the total GDP, making it the lowest contributor to the country’s economy. About 46.6% of this share are from agricultural crops with 17% from rice, and 14.2% are from livestock. 

In 2022, the country’s total labor force reached 47,871,825, and only about 5.4% of this population are unemployed according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The services sector accounts for most of the employment in the Philippines which was estimated by the PSA to be at around 58.8% of the total in May 2024. This was followed by the agricultural sector and the industry sector, which had 24.2% and 16.9% of the total labor force, respectively.

Agriculture Labor Force

• In 2022, the total employment in the agriculture sector of the Philippines was estimated by the ILO to be 24% of the total labor force. Trend from the data presented by the World Bank shows that this has been declining through the years. Some of the several reasons for this decline are the aging farming population, land conversion, and displacement of farm labor due to mechanization.

The country’s average headline inflation in 2022 reached 5.8% which manifested a 3.9% increase from the previous year. The inflationary pressure, as reported by the Senate Economic Planning Office of the Senate of the Philippines, mainly came from the continuous rising of global oil prices, exacerbated by the simultaneous rise in commodity prices, and depreciation of the Philippine peso. This may particularly affect the low-income households who are more vulnerable due to lack of accessibility to affordable commodities.

The country’s average headline inflation in 2022 reached 5.8% which manifested a 3.9% increase from the previous year. The inflationary pressure, as reported by the Senate Economic Planning Office of the Senate of the Philippines, mainly came from the continuous rising of global oil prices, exacerbated by the simultaneous rise in commodity prices, and depreciation of the Philippine peso. This may particularly affect the low-income households who are more vulnerable due to lack of accessibility to affordable commodities.

Sugarcane has always been the country’s top agricultural commodities produced in terms of production quantity, and this is followed by rice and coconut. In 2022, the Philippines were able to produce 23,455,403.5 tons of sugarcane. It was in 2017 that the country was able to produce the highest production quantity of sugarcane at 29,286,893.18 tons. [Data from FAOstat]

Like in other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines is also rich with various natural resources which include mining products that play an important role in the economic development of the country, particularly golds, silver, iron ore, and oil. About 11% of the global production of nickel comes from the Philippines in 2022, making it the second top producer of nickel in the world next to Indonesia.

Aside from these mineral natural resources, the Philippines is also gifted with various tourist spots of natural resources. An example of this would be the almost perfect cone-shaped Mayon volcano, and the Chocolate Hills which has been declared as one of the National Geologic Monument in the country of the UNESCO World Heritage Center in 1988.

In 2022, the Philippines had a total trade amounting to US$ 216,198.66 Million, and it had a trade deficit amounting to US$ 58,243.56 million according to the Summary of External Trade performance in the Philippines by PSA. This manifested a 38% year-on-year growth from the previous year. The country was also in deficit in terms of agricultural trade, which was at US$ 7,544,964,000. [Data from FAOstat]

Imports

• The total imported goods of the Philippines in 2022 amounted to US$ 137.22 billion. This was a 17.4% increase from the previous year due to the increase in values of the 10 major commodity groups that the country imported. The most imported goods in 2022 were electronic products, which accounted for 23.9% of the country’s total imports. The country’s top import partner was China which accounted for about 28.22% of the total, followed by Indonesia and Japan.
• In the same year, the Philippines’ total import of agricultural commodities amounted to US$ 13,373,535,000 with wheat being the top imported agricultural commodity which had a total import value of US$ 1,584,090,000. This commodity was also the top import in terms of quantity.  [Data from FAOstat]

Exports

• From PSA’s report on exports, the country manifested a negative growth in the sales of exports in 2022. The Electronic products commodity group remained to have the highest export sales value in the same year and account for more than half of the total exports. [44] The country’s top exporting partner in 2022 was the USA which accounted for 12.47% of the country’s total export, followed by Japan and China.
  
• In the same year, the country’s total export of agricultural commodities amounted to US$ 5,828,571,000 Million, with Coconut Oil having the highest export value of US$ 2,099,955,000. This was followed by bananas that earned a total export value of US$ 1,095,512,000 from the 2,301,595.61 tons that the country was able to produce.  [Data from FAOstat]

The total imported goods of the Philippines in 2022 amounted to US$ 137.22 billion. This was a 17.4% increase from the previous year due to the increase in values of the 10 major commodity groups that the country imported. The most imported goods in 2022 were electronic products, which accounted for 23.9% of the country’s total imports. The country’s top import partner was China which accounted for about 28.22% of the total, followed by Indonesia and Japan.

In the same year, the Philippines’ total import of agricultural commodities amounted to US$ 13,373,535,000 with wheat being the top imported agricultural commodity which had a total import value of US$ 1,584,090,000. This commodity was also the top import in terms of quantity. [Data from FAOstat]

From PSA’s report on exports, the country manifested a negative growth in the sales of exports in 2022. The Electronic products commodity group remained to have the highest export sales value in the same year and account for more than half of the total exports. The country’s top exporting partner in 2022 was the USA which accounted for 12.47% of the country’s total export, followed by Japan and China.

In the same year, the country’s total export of agricultural commodities amounted to US$ 5,828,571,000 Million, with Coconut Oil having the highest export value of US$ 2,099,955,000. This was followed by bananas that earned a total export value of US$ 1,095,512,000 from the 2,301,595.61 tons that the country was able to produce. [Data from FAOstat]

According to the Board of Investments Philippine (2017), the Philippine manufacturing industry remains to be the most important sector for long-term productive employment, value-added generation, and innovation.  As a matter of fact, this fills up more than have of the country’s industrial sector and accounts for almost a quarter of the country’s GDP. 

The Philippines is recognized as one of the richest in the world in terms of natural resources, including minerals. Despite contributing a little less than the contribution of other industries to the country’s total GDP, the mining and quarrying industry of the Philippines still plays a crucial role in the economy as it employs hundreds of thousands of people which also serves as a support to other industries in the country. 

Like any other industries in the country, the construction industry continues to be one of the predominant drivers of the Philippines’ economic progress. It plays a crucial role in infrastructure development which creates jobs, thus harnessing the continuous economic growth of the country.