ANNUALLY, July 11 is dubbed globally to be “World Population Day,” which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues.
This yearly event had been sparked by public interest when global population swelled to five billion on July 11, 1987, that prompted the Governing Council of the United Nations (UN) Development Programme to establish this annual observance by 1989.
Statistical data culled from such sources as United Nations Population Division, World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank inform that as of April 24, 2017, worldwide population has reached 7.5 billion.
The same sources claim that global population surged by approximately 100 million every 14 months.
In the Philippines, the current population as of July 9, 2017, is 103, 818, 929, which represents 1.38 percent of the global population according to UN estimates. As such, it ranks the Philippines as the 13th most populous country with China being the first with 1, 388, 232, 693 as of Tuesday.
On the other hand, Singapore ranks 113th with a population count of 5, 784, 538.
The social science called “Demography” explained that how the population changes quantitatively is a matter of the interaction among three main factors: fertility, mortality, and migration.
As a demographic measure, fertility refers to the reproductive experience, biological and sociological, of the population that leads to pregnancy and birth outcomes. These outcomes ultimately lead to an addition to the population figures.
According to the data culled from the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the Philippines currently has a total fertility rate (TFR) of 3 per woman. Simply put, on an average, women of reproductive age that had been surveyed have three children. Meanwhile, NDHS pointed out that TFR in the country has reduced significantly by 50 percent for the past 40 years from 6 in 1970 to 3 in 2012 (the time the survey was carried out).
On the other hand, mortality refers to the level of death characterizing a population. It emphasizes the examination of the relationship between death and the size, composition and distribution of the population. Its measures or tools represent subtraction of the overall population.
Data gathered from DOH (Department of Health) as of 2016 enumerate the following as the top 10 leading causes of mortality in the country: (1) coronary heart disease, (2) stroke, (3) influenza and pneumonia, (4) diabetes mellitus (5) tuberculosis (6) hypertension, (7) lung disease, (8) kidney disease, (9) violence; and (10) asthma.
Finally, migration, as a demographic process refers to the potential gain or loss of population due to movement as in the case of emigration (exodus) or immigration (entry). Both types of movement may be influenced by economic factors or nuptiality, which pertains to the frequency, characteristics, and dissolution of marriages in a population. Relative to nuptiality, the NDHS states that the median age of first marriage is 22 years old among Filipinos.
Meanwhile, data from the World Data Altas claimed that the Net Migration Rate (NMR) in the Philippines is -1.45 as of 2015. NMR refers to the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants over a period, divided by the person-years lived by the population of the receiving country over that period. It is expressed as net number of migrants per 1,000 population. In simplest terms, a negative NMR means there are more people departing from the country than there are entering. Therefore, a -1.45 NMR implies that emigrants (overseas Filipino Workers probably) are almost twice as much immigrants (foreigners deciding to reside locally) per 1,000 population in the country. On the other hand a zero NMR means emigrants equal immigrants. Migration occurs over a series of different push and pull factors that revolve around social, political, economical, and environmental factors.
But beyond these fancy demographic terms is the most pressing question of all: What are the consequences of these swollen numbers?
Various sociological reports summarize the consequences of population explosion as follows: heavy pressure on lands, food shortage, unemployment, economic loss, law and order problems, pollution problems, and shrinkage of natural resources.
In the Philippines, the laws that regulate population-related issues are transcribed in Republic Act (RA) 6365 of 1971 (An Act Establishing A National Policy On Population, Creating The Commission On Population And For Other Purposes), Presidential Decree 78 of 1972 (Revised Population Act of the Philippines), and RA 10354 of 2012 (Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act or RH law).
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The writer is a medical professional and is a full-time faculty member of the Medical Education Unit of Southwestern University PHINMA School of Medicine for its Doctor of Medicine program. Currently, he is a candidate for the Master of Public Health from SWU-PHINMA. He has been writing as a columnist of this paper since December 2008.