The Land and People of the Philippines

The population of the Philippines is around 63,200,000 people.

Filipinos live and work in an area which encompasses 300,000 sq. kilometers of land on 7,109 islands and islets.

Today in the Philippines, one can come into contact with a diversity of lifestyles ranging from those of people grouped as cultural communities (or ethnic minorities) who have many different sets of traditions developed well before Spanish colonization, to the fast-paced lives of international businessmen and women who reside in Manila and other big cities.

In the cities, great diversity also can be seen; often there are high-rise apartments in the same neighborhood as "squatters" who live in the streets or in homemade cardboard houses.

The majority of Filipinos make a living from agriculture and fishing in lowland and coastal areas, while in the mountains, the people also grow rice and other crops as well as hunt.

In more urban centers, people might work in factories, in offices or in the "service and tourist economy," meaning that they work in hotels, shops and restaurants.

Filipinos might also work as wage-laborers on plantations and in timber operations.

There are many ways to categorize the people of the Philippines although no set of categories will truly include every Filipino. Most people identify themselves strongly with their religion.

In the Philippines, there are two major world religions, Christianity, (90% of the population) and Islam (5-7%). In addition, each Cultural Community practices its own distinct religion.

These number in the hundreds.

Filipinos also feel a strong bond with the area in which they were born and raised, so that, for many people, allegiance to extended family, village, and then local area is just as important as their Filipino heritage.

The islands of the Philippines have been divided by the government into 12 geographical regions which stretch from the northernmost island groups of Babuyan and Batanes, 50 miles south of Taiwan, to the islands of the Sulu Archipelago which nearly reach northern Borneo, in Malaysia.

Each region is subdivided into provinces, and each province has a capital.

Throughout these regions, there are hundreds of different written and spoken languages and consequently, each region is home to many different kinds of people.