In the rural areas, houses are often small, consisting of just one or two rooms, and

are elevated on piles. The open spaces below the structures are used to store tools
and other household belongings, as well as live chickens and other smaller farm
animals. Especially in the fishing communities of coastal regions, houses are typically
raised above the ocean, river, or floodplain to accommodate boat traffic and the ebb
and flow of the tides. There are often elevated networks of walkways that connect the
houses within the community.

In addition to many smaller settlement units, there are a number of major cities.
Some of these, including Manila, Cebu, Jaro, Vigan, and Naga (formerly Nueva
Caceras), were granted charters by the Spanish colonial government. More chartered
cities were founded under U.S. administration and since independence in 1946.
Metropolitan (Metro) Manila—an agglomeration consisting of Quezon City,
Manila, Pasay, Caloocan, and several other cities and municipalities in southern
Luzon—is by far the largest urban area in the country. Other principal cities
include Davao on Mindanao and Cebu in the Visayas.

In the urban areas, the wealthier residents typically live in two- or three-story single-
family homes. However, a significant proportion of city dwellers live in poverty, often
occupying any vacant piece of land and building their homes from bamboo, wood,
sheet metal, and other scavenged items. The people in such communities usually do
not have regular access to running water and electricity or to sanitary services.

Demographic trends

Philippines: Age breakdown

The population density of the Philippines is high, but the distribution of the
population is uneven. Parts of Metro Manila have a population density that is more
than 100 times that of some outlying areas such as the mountainous area of
northern Luzon. The country’s birth rate remains significantly higher than the world
average, as well as the average for the Southeast Asian region. Efforts since the mid-
20th century to slow the overall growth rate have had limited success, in part because
reductions in the birth rate have been offset to some degree by reductions in
the death rate.

Especially since World War II, population has tended to move from rural areas to
towns and cities. At the beginning of the 20th century more than four-fifths of the
population was rural, but by the early 21st century that proportion had dropped to
roughly two-fifths. There is a considerable amount of Filipino emigration,
particularly of manual labourers and professionals. Many emigrants have gone to
the United States, Okinawa, Guam, and Canada; in addition, a large number of
skilled and semiskilled workers have taken temporary overseas assignments, mainly
in the Middle East and, increasingly, in East and Southeast Asia.
Economy
The Philippines is largely an agricultural country. Its economy is based on free
enterprise; individuals and nongovernmental entities are free to participate in its
development and management, sometimes with the aid of government credit.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
The agricultural sector is a major component of the Philippine economy, although it
contributes only about one-seventh of gross domestic product (GDP). Crops can be
grown throughout the year in the country’s rich and fertile soils, and the sector
employs nearly one-third of the total workforce. The principal farm products are
sugarcane, rice, coconuts, bananas, corn (maize), and pineapples. Additional
products include mangoes, citrus, papayas, and other tropical fruits; coffee and
tobacco; and various fibres such as abaca (Manila hemp) and maguey, which are
used mainly to make rope. A wide variety of vegetables are raised for
domestic consumption.

rice farming in the Philippines

Rice, the principal staple crop, is grown especially in central and north-central
Luzon, south-central Mindanao, western Negros, and eastern and central Panay.
About one-fourth of the total farmland is used for rice growing. Since the early 1970s
rice production in the Philippines has improved considerably, and in some years
there has been enough of a surplus that rice can be exported. Factors contributing to
this increase in output include the development and use of higher-yielding strains of
rice, the construction of feeder roads and irrigation canals, and the use of chemical
fertilizers and insecticides. Use of scientific farming techniques in the Philippines has
had its drawbacks, however. The newer strains of rice have required the application
of expensive chemicals that generally must be imported, and improper application of
those substances has caused serious soil degradation in some areas.

The Philippines is one of the world’s largest producers of coconuts and coconut
products, and these are important export commodities. The area devoted to coconut
production rivals that used for rice and corn. Sugarcane is cultivated widely in
central and north-central Luzon, western Negros, and on Panay. Abaca is grown
extensively in eastern Mindanao, southeastern Luzon, and on Leyte and Samar. Both
sugarcane and abaca are important agricultural exports.

Fish provides a significant proportion of the protein in the Filipino diet,

and fisheries have been growing slowly but steadily since the early 1990s. Canned
tuna is the principal fish exported. Commercial fishing is carried on primarily
off Palawan, Negros, Mindanao, and Panay. Among the most important commercial
fishes are milkfish (a herringlike fish), sardines, anchovies, tuna, scad, and mackerel.
Fish are raised in ponds in some provinces of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The Sulu Archipelago is known for its pearl farms.

At one time about half of the Philippines’ total land area was covered with forests. Of
this area, a large part abounded with trees of commercial value, especially
lauan, narra (a species of Pterocarpus used in cabinetmaking), and other tropical
hardwoods and pines. Heavy logging and inadequate reforestation measures,
however, have reduced considerably the amount of forested land. A ban on the
export of hardwoods has been in effect since the mid-1980s, but there is evidence
that much hardwood timber continues to leave the country illegally. Trees from
Philippine forests continue to provide wood for lumber, veneer, plywood, furniture,
wallboard, pulp and paper, and light building materials, both for domestic and
international consumption. Other notable forest products include rattan, gutta-
percha, various resins, and bamboo.

Resources and power

Although the Philippines is rich in mineral resources, mining
activities constitute only a small portion of GDP and employ an even smaller fraction
of the population. Most of the country’s metallic minerals, including gold, iron ore,
lead, zinc, chromite, and copper, are drawn from major deposits on the islands
of Luzon and Mindanao. Smaller deposits of silver, nickel, mercury, molybdenum,
cadmium, and manganese occur in several other locations. The Visayas are the
principal source of nonmetallic minerals, including limestone for cement, marble,
asphalt, salt, sulfur, asbestos, guano, gypsum, phosphate, and silica. Petroleum
and natural gas are extracted from fields off the northwest coast of Palawan. Copper
has remained the country’s primary mineral, although changing world market
demands and investment incentives have rendered its production somewhat volatile.

Until the late 20th century, hydroelectric power supplied only a small proportion of

the country’s electrical output, and thermal plants (most of which burned imported
oil) supplied the major proportion. The completion of several dam projects on Luzon
and the expansion of another project on Mindanao have increased the percentage of
power generated by hydroelectric installations; irrigation and flood control have
been additional benefits of some of the projects. Dependence on foreign oil has also
been reduced by the construction of geothermal and conventional coal-fired thermal
plants and, to some degree, by the exploitation of Palawan’s
offshore petroleum reserves.
Manufacturing
Much growth in manufacturing took place in the Philippines in the 20th century,
particularly in the 1950s and (after a slump in the ’60s) the ’70s. Since that time the
sector has remained relatively stable, contributing roughly one-fourth of GDP,
though it employs less than one-tenth of the workforce. The government has assisted
the private sector by exempting certain new industries from taxation for a certain
period. Only nominal taxes are imposed on selected industries, and loans on
favourable terms are available to others.

Many factories are licensees of foreign companies or act as subcontractors for foreign
firms, turning out finished products for export from imported semifinished goods. A
large segment of the manufacturing sector, however, produces goods intended for
domestic consumption. Major manufactures include electronics components,
garments and textile products, processed foods and beverages, chemicals, and
petroleum products.
Finance
The national currency, the piso, is issued by the Central Bank of the Philippines
(Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). Banking operations are also conducted by several
other government institutions, including the Land Bank of the Philippines and the
Development Bank of the Philippines; the Philippine National Bank, formerly
government-owned, was largely privatized in the late 20th century. All these banks
were originally established by the government to encourage business, agriculture,
and industry.