The Philippines (/ˈfɪləpiːnz/ ( listen); Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs] or Filipinas [fɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially the Republic of

the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas),[a] is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the

western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main
geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines
is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both within the single urban area of Metro Manila.[13] Bounded
by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the
Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east, Indonesia to
the south, Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest.
The Philippines' position as an island country on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the country
prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The country has a variety of natural resources and a globally significant level of
biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of around 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi), which supports a population of at
least 100 million. As of January 2018, it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 13th-most populated
country in the world. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. Negritos, some of the
archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian

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