1. An URBAN place in planning, is a distinct local unit described by its population size, land area, and income. The National Statistics Office determines which is urban and which is not.
2. The smallest urban unit is the barangay. In the Philippines, 52% of all barangays is considered urban by the NSO. Metro Manila is 100% urbanized.
3. The Social Weather Station, in its survey for hunger incidence in the country, asked only one question-- How many times did you get hungry in the last three months and had nothing to eat? Therefore, as per SWS standards, hunger is defined not by the number of times a person eats, but rather how many times a person needed to eat but could not.
4. On the May 11, 2006 edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), NEDA declares that the population growth in the Philippines has gone down from 2.34% in 1995 to 1.95% in 2004. Various sectors reacted to this, as there is absolutely no scientific basis for the pronouncement. Actual population is determined by a census which happens every 10 years. The last time a census was conducted was in the year 2000, and the next census is not due until 2010. Population growth is determined between two periods of time, and with no census in 2004, there was no way that NEDA could have come up with an accurate figure. The next day, NEDA issues a correction. The announcement was only based on projections and not actual data.
5. A census requires an act of Congress and costs about 1 billion pesos to conduct.
6. The NSO administers the surveys, but it is the National Statistical Coordination Board that analyzes the data and makes the official statements.
7. As of 2000, the population of the Philippines is 76, 504, 077. It is estimated that the population has reached the 85 million mark.
8. The median age refers to the age that divides the population into half, while mean age is the average age of the whole population. The Philippines has a very young population-- our median age is 21 years old, about the same as Singapore and Malaysia. Germany's median is 35 years old, while Japan is currently the "oldest" country in the world with a median of nearly 43 years old.
9. In the Philippines, there are more males than there are females. The sex ratio is 101.43, or for every 100 females, there are 101.43 males. This is a global trend and there is no universally accepted scientific explanation for this phenomenon.
10. Overtime, the females oversurvive the males. Women live longer than men. The sex ration is less than 100 starting at the age of 55. At age 75 or older, there are only 76.25 males for every 100 females.
11. The Philippines' dependency ratio is 69%, meaning for every 100 workers, there are 69 dependents, 5 of which are old.
