BAGUIO CITY – The Philippines population “bomb” ticks loudest in the countryside, underscoring the fact there is no room for complacency for ongoing family planning efforts in covering rural areas effectively by both government and the private sector.
Statistics gleaned from records of Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reveal that on the average, rural women have more children (2.2 children) than urban women (1.7 children).
What is the reason for such a trend? The Philippines 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey found out poverty as the overriding reason why rural women enter into “living together in consensual union” relationship with males at a younger age (21.7 years) than urban women (23.8 years). A United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) study corroborated the national study.
“Fertility in the Philippines generally declines with increasing household wealth, from 3.1 children per woman in the poorest households to 1.4 children per woman in the wealthiest households,” the demographic survey stated.
UNICEF revealed 15% or 1 in 6 Filipino of rural females enter into husband-wife relationship before their 18th birthday while 2% prefer getting hitched before age 15 on their own accord and free will. Driving them to such predicament are poverty, lack of access to education and exclusion of women from economic opportunities. Low economic status can be one of the predisposing factors for early marriage.
The country has a record of having the 12th highest number of child brides in the world, having reached 726,000.
Child marriage is a human rights violation that totally dislocates growth and development of young females, leading to teenage pregnancy, low educational acquirement leading to non-employability and higher risk of domestic violence.
Philippine Republic Act No. 11596, however, has closed legal loopholes and challenges practices that enable child, early and forced marriage in the Philippines.
Currently, women in the Philippines have an average of 1.9 children per woman, the third lowest in Southeast Asia, or a similar pattern that has played out in other nations like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Fertility has declined steadily, from 4.1 children per woman in 1993 to 1.9 children per woman today, PSA records revealed.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), the fertility rate holds at 2.1 per woman. The number of live births in CAR reached 30,722 in 2018, or an increase in 3.7% from the previous year’s record of 29,626 live births. As of 2020, CAR’s population was estimated at 1,797,660 persons.
Among regions, CALABARZON recorded the highest number of birth occurrences with 14.3 per cent share followed by National Capital Region (NCR) at 12.5% and Central Luzon at 11.8%.
Of all pregnancies to Philippine women aged 15-49 ending three years before the survey, 88% resulted in live births and 12% resulted in pregnancy losses. Among pregnancy losses, 11% were miscarriages, 1% induced abortion and 1% stillbirth.
Risk of miscarriage generally increases with increasing age at pregnancy outcome and increasing pregnancy order.
Overall, 55% of women age 15-49 are currently in union, meaning they are either married or living together in mutual union (19%). Half of Filipino women age 25-49 were married by 22.8 years, the median age at first marriage.
Rural women marry at a younger age (21.7 years) as compared to urban women at 23.8 years.
The median age at first sexual intercourse is 20.7 years among women at ages 25-49. The median age at first sex among women varies by region, from 20.0 years in Northern Mindanao to 20.3 years in CAR.
The median age at first birth for women at ages 25-49 is 23.6 years, meaning half of women aged 25-49 gave birth for the first time before this age. On average, urban women gave birth for the first time over one year later than rural women (24.4 years as compared to rural women’s 22.7 years).
In the Philippines, the legal age of marriage is 18 years, although marriage before this age is permitted among indigenous Muslim. One percent of adolescent women aged 15-19 got into consensual union before age 15. Only 2% of women aged 25-49 reported that they first entered into union by age 15 and 14% were first married by age 18.
Similarly, 1% of adolescent women aged 15-19 had sexual intercourse before the age of 15. Very few young women have had a live birth before the age of 15.
Overall, 5% of adolescent women aged 15-19 have been pregnant: 4% have given birth, 2% were pregnant at the time of the survey and less than 1% have ever had a pregnancy loss.
Teenage pregnancy in the Philippines generally declines as household wealth increases, according to the national survey.
In current use of family planning in the country, 58% of married women and 41% of sexually active unmarried women at ages 15-49 use any method of Family Planning (FP). Use of modern methods of FP is high (42%) among married women as compared to 24% use by sexually active unmarried women.
Most popular methods used by married women are the pill (20%), female sterilization, (9%) and injectable (5%). Sexually active unmarried women use male condoms (12%) and the pill (7%) most often among the FP methods.
Thirteen percent of married women practice withdrawal and 3% use the rhythm method. 15% of sexually active unmarried women practice withdrawal and 2% use the rhythm method.
Surprisingly, use of modern methods of FP is more common among married women in rural areas at 44%, compared to 40% among women in urban places. Use of modern FP is highest in Cagayan Valley at 58% and lowest (21%) in autonomous Mindanao.
Use of modern methods of FP among married women increased from 25% in 1993 to 42% in 2022. Use of traditional methods has not changed much from 15% in 1993 to 17% in 2022.
The public sector provides 50% of modern FP methods. Slightly less than half (46%) of modern method users obtain FP from the private medical sector and 4% of users obtain FP methods from other sources.
A large majority of women (73%) using female sterilization and injectable (85%) obtained these methods from the government sector.
In contrast, the majority of pill users (70%) and condom users (72%) obtained their methods from the private sector.
Total demand for FP countrywide includes both met and unmet need. Met need is the per cent of women who are currently using FP. Unmet need for FP is the proportion of women who want to stop or delay child-bearing but aren’t using FP.
In the Philippines, 42% of all women have a demand for FP, which includes 8% of women with unmet need for FP and 34% of women with a met need. Majority, or 58%, have no need for FP, indicating they do not wish to delay or limit pregnancy.
Unmet need for FP is more than three times higher among sexually active unmarried women (42%) than among married women (12%).
In the Philippines, 83% of married women at ages 15-49 have demand satisfied for FP, with 59% satisfied by modern methods. Married women in rural areas have higher demand satisfied by modern methods than those in urban areas (62% vs 57%).
By region, demand satisfied by modern methods ranges from 37% in Mindanao to 78% in Central Luzon. Demand for FP satisfied by modern methods among married women increased from 35% in 1993 to 59% in 2022.
Overall, 91% of married women in the Philippines participated in decision-making about FP.
In exposure to FP, social media (64%) is the most common source of FP messages, followed by TV (54%) and 35% at community events. Still, there is a remaining 17% of women mostly in the Philippine countryside never exposed to FP messages in the 12 months of the survey.
At the educational level, the Population Education Program (PEP) has already been integrated into the curricula and introduced in the classroom of the primary, secondary and tertiary levels to enhance teaching of the subject and eventually cut down birth rates in what is called “prolific places.”
It is an addition to Department of Education (DepEd) integration of population education in the curricula of elementary and secondary schools in helping implement national government policy and also transforming teaching methodology to one that encourages critical thinking.
It is considered an innovation in the educational system to make students more aware of current events and contemporary problems facing Philippine society.
Integration of population education in the educational system is deemed one important key to solving the country’s population problems and to develop responsible decision-making skills among the youth that will guide learners as future parents.