Amazing Statistics about The Philippines is all about some of the most significant statistics that we discovered on our recent business delegation to the Philippines in November. We regularly report on the economic indicators of the country but what we have here is a selection of the most significant statistics over and above some of the economic numbers.
I mentioned the business delegation. That delegation included 35 representatives from a wide variety of organisations. This in itself is an amazing statistic and shows the increasing interest from UK companies in doing business in the Philippines.
Population
The population in the Philippines is now over 100 million and growing at a rate of around 2% per annum. The average age in the Philippines is 22 – yes, twenty two! Around 50% of the population is below the age of 30! part of this can be explained by the birth rate but part is explained by the fact that several generations of Filipinos went overseas to find work and now send significant sums of money back to the Philippines in the form of remittances. However, many of that older generation are now returning to the Philippines.
Employment
The current unemployment rate in the Philippines is 6.5% in 2014. How many Western countries would give anything to have a figure like this. In the Clark Development Zone, just north of Manila, the Daily Wage Rate is US $7.76.
Telecomms
The Philippines has a world-class telecoms infrastructure, partly driven by the BPO and call centre industry which now employs over 1.2 million people. The voice call centre industry in the Philippines overtook India a couple of years ago.
There are currently 70.5 million mobile telecoms subscribers, 35 million internet users and 3 million broadband users. The telecoms usage in the Philippines is directly as a result of the population profile, the increasing BPO and call centre industry and the investment in telecoms infrastructure which has been driven from Government and Industry foresight.
We have been told that one third of all Facebook traffic worldwide emanates from the Philippines. It’s that population profile again!
Economics
Real GDP growth in the Philippines has been positive every year since 2004. Eleven years of unbroken GDP growth is an outstanding achievement in the light of the global financial turmoil throughout that period. Current GDP growth is in the region of 5.6%.
Infrastructure growth has been in the region of 2.0% of GDP for the last few years. This will increase to 5.0% in 2016.
The Philippines has moved up the world competitive index from 85th to 52nd in the last 5 years. That’s 33 places up the countries league table.
Summary
We could go on about many more statistics, and indeed we will, to show the positive direction of travel of the Philippines on the world stage. It used to be Asia’s best kept secret, but now more and more companies are getting the message and taking notice of the Philippines as an attractive and substantial market for product and services, a superb place to site a South East Asia headquarters, or as a cost effective and high quality manufacturing and outsourcing location.
Recent Comments