The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) is projecting that the population of the country will hit 110.8 million in 2021.
The POPCOM is anticipating that it may even reach 111 million due to the expected effect of the long quarantine period caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
But POPCOM Executive Director Dr. Juan Perez pointed out that the country’s population growth rate has slowed down by 1.31%.
“We have seen a significant decline. This is because Filipinos are choosing to have smaller families, to have fewer children.”
According to POPCOM, the population of senior citizens has surpassed 10 million for the first time while the working age group is over 71.2 million.
“We need to vaccinate, I believe, 80 percent of that (senior citizen) population. 8 point something million ‘yan (That’s 8 point million something),”Perez pointed out amidst the ongoing global health crisis.
The commission estimated that at least 1 million jobs are needed for next year to improve the number of the working population to which the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) responded, “In 2021, the key to our recovery is to continue managing risk, not to avoid them completely. This way, we can bring back jobs and income sources to enable the far majority of people to also address their non-COVID-19 sickness and hunger.” Report from Bea Bernardo
