MANILA, Philippines — The number of births in 2017 was the lowest in 10 years but more girls below 15 years have become mothers, the Commission on Population (PopCom) reported yesterday.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III said there were 1,700,618 births recorded last year and this was 1.8 percent lower than in 2016.

This means that 4,659 Filipinos were born per day – down from 4,730 in 2016 – or just 194 per hour or over three per minute.

Data also showed there was a continuing decline in adolescent births in 2017 to 196,478 from 201,182, representing a 2.3 percent reduction.

But Perez noted that an increase in the number of births among girls below 15 years was observed last year.

“Since 2011 we have noted an increasing trend of births among very young adolescents aged 10 to under 15, and this has continued in 2017 with 2,077 very young adolescents giving birth,” he added.

The official said this means that “there has been a 50 percent increase in very young adolescent births since 2011 (when there were 1,381 births in the age group) and calls for community and local action to address this social and health emergency.”

Steadily increasing senior citizens

PopCom also underscored that the proportion of senior citizens – those aged 60 years and above – is steadily increasing.

The agency estimated that the proportion of this population group will increase to 8.2 percent in 2019 from around 7.5 percent in 2015. This segment of the population has actually incurred the most rapid increase across age groups.

“The changing age structure of our population calls for the review of our current policy and program initiatives to ensure that they are responsive to the needs of every age group,” he maintained.

Perez added there is a need to “review the current population management program to align it to the challenges of changing age structure.”

The estimations made by PopCom for 2019 are based on PSA’s Philippine Census of Population in 2015 using geometric method.