The Philippine census is a regularly occurring and official inventory of the human population and housing units in the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. Since 1970, the population has been enumerated every five years. Results from the censuses are used to allocate congressional seats and fund government programs.
The mid-year census is known as the Census of Population (POPCEN), while the decennial census is referred to as the Census of Population and Housing (CPH).
By virtue of Republic Act No. 10625, known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, censuses in the Philippines have been administered by the
Philippine Statistics Authority
The Philippine Statistics Authority (; PSA) is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistical information on economic, social, demographic, political affairs, and gene ...
(PSA) since the
2015 census.
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
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
government pursuant to a royal decree calling for the counting of persons living as of the midnight of December 31, 1877. Based on this census, the Philippines had a population of 5,567,685 as of the reference date. This was followed by another censuses, the 1887 census that yielded a count of 5,984,727.
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 and its precursor agencies have been issuing estimates made using surveys and statistical systems.
Based on the 2020 Philippine census, the national population is 109,035,343 as of May 1, 2020. From 2015 to 2020, the population grew by 1.63% per year on the average.
Notes
References
External links
Philippine Statistics AuthorityPhilippine Standard Geographic Code
{{Asia topic, Census in
Government of the Philippines
Demographics of the Philippines
Recurring events established in 1877