Quezon City ranked first in terms of population among the Highly Urbanized Cities

Across cities, three out of 12 cities in NCR and one in Mindanao have surpassed one million population. Quezon City had the largest in terms of population size, contributing 2.17 million to the Philippine population. It was followed by Manila (1.58 million persons) and Caloocan City (1.18 million persons). These three highly urbanized cities were in NCR. Outside NCR, Davao City broke the millionth mark at 1.15 million persons.

Half of the population were below 21 years

The Philippine population had a median age of 21 years, same as the median age five years ago. This meant that half of the population were below 21 years old.

Sex ratio was 101.43

Of the total population in 2000, about 38.5 million or 50.36 percent were males while 38.0 million or 49.64 percent were females. Males outnumbered their female counterparts with sex ratio of 101.43 males for every 100 females. Sex ratio in 1995 was recorded at 101.4. There were more males than females in the age groups 0-19 and 25-54 years. On the other hand, females dominated in the rest of the age groups.

Dependency ratio down to 69.04

The age structure of Philippine population (Figure 3) was a typical broad base at the bottom consisting of large numbers of children and a narrow top made up of relatively small number of elderly. Young dependents belonging to age group 0 to 14 years comprised 37.01 percent. The old dependents (65 years and over) accounted for 3.83 percent, while 59.16 percent comprised the economically active population (15 to 64 years).

The 2000 dependency ratio was 69.04. This meant that for every 100 persons in the working age group (15-64 years), they had to support about 63 young dependents and about six old dependents. In 1995, the dependency ratio was at 69.60.

Females outnumbered males in voting population

The number of voters in the Philippines was posted at 43,331,229 persons or 56.64 percent of the total population. There was an almost 50-50 percent distribution by sex, with the females (50.11 percent) outpacing slightly the males with 49.89 percent.

More than half of the female population belonged to the reproductive age group

Out of the 38 million females in the Philippines, the total population of women in childbearing ages (15-49 years) was recorded at 19.4 million or 51.04 percent. The highest percentage of which, was in the 15 to 19 years age group (10.53 percent).

More single men than women

About 43.89 percent of the total population 10 years and over were single, while 45.66 percent were married. The remaining 10.45 percent were either widowed, separated/divorced, with other arrangements or with unknown marital status.

Among the single persons, the proportion was higher for males (52.94 percent) than for females (47.06 percent). In contrast, the proportion for widowed was higher for females (75.72 percent) than for males (24.28 percent).

Females dominated higher levels of education

Among household population aged five years and over, 41.89 percent had attended/finished elementary education. This proportion was lower as compared to that in 1995 (43.37 percent). The percentage who had attended/graduated high school posted an increase from 27.85 percent in 1995 to 28.35 percent in 2000.

Among academic degree holders, there were more females (57.89 percent) than males (42.11 percent). The same is true for post baccalaureate courses, the proportion was higher for females (58.27 percent) than for males (41.73 percent).

Over one-fourth were Tagalogs

The three prominent ethnic groups in the Philippine archipelago were Tagalog (28.15 percent), Cebuano (13.14 percent), and Ilocano (9.07 percent). The remaining 49.64 percent were either Bisaya/Binisaya (7.57 percent), Hiligaynon/Ilongo (7.56 percent), Bikol/Bicol (6.00 percent), Waray (3.36 percent), and the rest as other ethnic groups.

Nine out of ten were single houses

Most of the occupied housing units were single houses (87.73 percent). Multi-unit residential and Duplex comprised 6.92 percent and 3.54 percent, respectively. The remaining 1.81 percent were either commercial/industrial/agricultural, institutional living quarters or other type of housing units.

The proportion of occupied housing units which either needed minor repair or did not need any repair at all, was relatively high at 68.57 percent, while 19.09 percent were still housed in buildings needing major repair.

Of the almost 15 million occupied housing units, about one-third (30.27 percent) of the housing units were built from 1996 to 2000. Buildings built between 1991 to 1995 comprised 22.38 percent, while 21.20 percent for buildings built within 1981 to 1990.

Median floor area of housing units was 29.63 square meters

Of the total occupied housing units, 23.45 percent had floor area of 10 to 19 square meters; 18.78 percent with 20 to 29 square meters; 17.52 percent with less than 10 square meters, and 16.56 percent with 30 to 49 square meters. On the other hand, the proportion of housing units with floor area of 90 to 119 square meters was 3.21 percent.

Occupied housing units had a median floor area of 29.63 square meters. This meant that, half of the housing units had floor area of below 29.63 square meters.

Roof and outer walls were made of strong materials

As to the construction materials used, more than 30 percent of the housing units used concrete/brick/stone for the outer walls. This registered 14.49 percentage point increase from the 1990 figure. In addition, close to 68 percent had roof made of galvanized iron/aluminum, an increase of 17.29 percentage points as compared to the figure ten years ago.

Housing units using the combination of galvanized iron/aluminum for the roof and concrete/brick/ stone for the walls contributed 29.03 percent.

Table1. Total Population Distribution of Top 10 Regions by Sex: Philippines, 2000