The Grim Reaper worked overtime in 2021 but fortunately he wasn’t a match for musters of storks, which delivered 1.36 million Filipino babies, mostly to unwed mothers.
Data collected by the Philippine Statistics Authority show that in 2021 around 12.4 births live births were registered for every 1,000 population, extending a declining trend since 2012.
On the average, the PSA said there were 3,739 babies born every day in 2021, or 156 babies born per hour.
Around 52 of those born were males while 57 percent of registered live births were recorded in Luzon.
About 9.8 percent of newborn Filipinos in 2021 were born in September, followed by October and November, respectively. Interestingly, Filipinos favor the months of December, January and February for weddings.
Data show nearly 28 percent of babies were born to mothers between 25 and 29 years old but 10 percent of those who gave birth in 2021 were females below 20 years old.
Of the total registered live births, 57 percent were born out of wedlock, most of them in Luzon.
As the storks did their work, the Grim Reaper also worked overtime, claiming 879,429 lives in 2021, or 43 percent more than in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started. The leading causes of deaths that year were hearth ailments, strokes, and COVID-19.
The greatest number of deaths occurred in September while the least happened in December. Majority of those whose deaths were registered in 2021 were males.
The number of registered deaths from 2012 to 2021 trended upward except in the years 2017 and 2020. This represented a 70.8 percent increase from 514,745 in 2012 to 879,429 in 2021, the PSA said.
Decision makers, businessmen and leaders use demographic data as guide to craft policies and strategies.
