Asia
To which language should you translate to localize in the Philippines?
LANGUAGE INSIGHT
Official language
Tagalog (37.9%), English (2.9%)
Actual languages
Tagalog (37.9%), Cebuano (22.4%), Hiligaynon (6.9%), Ilocano (6.7%), Bicolano (3.8%), Pampango (3.0%), English (2.9%), Waray (2.5%), Kapampangan (2.3%), Chinese (2.0%), Maguindanao (1.3%), Pangasinan (1.2%), Maranao (1.1%), Tausug (1.1%), Kinaray-a (0.7%), other (4.2%).
What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in the Philippines
(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)
- 89/150 localize by translating into English
- 5/150 localize by translating into Tagalog
- 2/150 localize by translating into both Tagalog and English
- 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French and Simplified Chinese
- 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Italian, Bahasa Indonesia, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Thai and Ukrainian
- 1/150 localizes by translating into Tagalog, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon language, Ilocano language, Kapampangan language, Pangasinan language and Waray language
- 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish and Korean
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3M
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ABB
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Accenture
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Adidas
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Adobe
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Airbnb
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Aldi
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Amazon
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American Airlines
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American Express
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Apple
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Audi
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Autodesk
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Avis
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Bayer
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BMW
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Booking.com
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Bosch
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British Airways
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Bumble
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Burberry
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BYD
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Canon
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Capgemini
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Cartier
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Caterpillar
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Chevrolet
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Cisco Systems
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Citibank
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Coca-Cola
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Costco
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Dell
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Deloitte
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Delta
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DHL
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Disney+
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Dyson
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eBay
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Eli Lilly
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Emirates
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Ernst & Young
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Facebook
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FedEx
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Ford
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Four Seasons
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Fujifilm
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GE
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Gillette
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GoDaddy
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Google
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Gucci
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Haier
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Heineken
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Hermès
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Hertz
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Hilton
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Hisense
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Hitachi
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Honda
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Hotels.com
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HP
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HP Enterprise
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HSBC
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Huawei
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Hyatt
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Hyundai
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IBM
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IKEA
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Intel
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InterContinental Hotels
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J&J
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Jack Daniel's
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Jehovah’s Witnesses
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John Deere
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Kellogg's
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Kia
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KPMG
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LOréal
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Land Rover
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LEGO
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Lenovo
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Lexus
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LG
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Louis Vuitton
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Lululemon
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LUSH
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Marriott
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MasterCard
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McDonald's
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Mercedes-Benz
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Merck
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Microsoft
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Mitsubishi Electric
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Nestlé
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Netflix
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Nike
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Nikon
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Nintendo
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Nio
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Nissan
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NIVEA
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Oracle
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Pampers
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Panasonic
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PayPal
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Pepsi
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Pfizer
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Philips
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Pitney Bowes
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Porsche
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Procter & Gamble
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PWC
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Revolut
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Rolex
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Royal Caribbean
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Salesforce
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Samsung
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Sanofi
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SAP
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Sephora
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Shopify
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Siemens
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Sony
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Spotify
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Starbucks
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Steelcase
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Stripe
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Subaru
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Tesla
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Tiffany
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Tinder
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Toshiba
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Toyota
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TripAdvisor
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Uber
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United Airlines
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UPS
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Visa
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Volkswagen
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Volvo Cars
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Vrbo
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Walmart
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Western Union
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Wikipedia
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Wise
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WordPress
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Workday
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Xerox
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Xiaomi (Mi)
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Zara
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Zoom
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Introduction
Language
Official language
Tagalog (37.9%), English (2.9%)
T-index
0.47%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
Foreign languages
Chinese (various types), Arabic, Japanese, Spanish, Malay, Tamil and Korean
English
High proficiency (EF) – 22 of 111 countries/regions in the world- 2/24 position in Asia.
Demography
Capital: Manila
Currency: Philippine peso
Population: 113,88 m
Population density: 376/km2
Economy
GDP: 394.09 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 3,460.5 USD ‎(2021)‎
Exports: $79.5 billion (2020)
Statistics
Internet users: 68% penetration, 76.01 million
Unemployment rate: 3.4% (2021)
Urbanisation: 46.91% (2018)
Literacy: 98.2% (2018)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numbering system and point as decimal separator
Date format: mm-dd-yyyy / dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 12h time system
Country code: 0063
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$108 billion (2020). Integrated Circuits ($12.3B), Refined Petroleum ($5.61B), Broadcasting Equipment ($2.89B), Office Machine Parts ($2.45B), and Cars ($2.16B), importing mostly from China ($34.5B), Japan ($8.21B), South Korea ($7.31B), United States ($6.84B), and Indonesia ($6.34B).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 32% have an account with a financial institution
• 1.9% have a credit card
• 4.5% have a mobile money account
• 9.9% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
It is moderately easy to conduct business (rated 62.8 out of 100) Ranked 11th out of 25 East Asian countries, and 95th worldwide out of 190 countries (2022, World Bank).
Exports
$79.5 billion (2020). Integrated Circuits ($22.6B), Office Machine Parts ($9.32B), Electrical Transformers ($2.36B), Insulated Wire ($2.32B), and Semiconductor Devices ($2.18B), exporting mostly to China ($12.9B), United States ($10.7B), Japan ($10.3B), Hong Kong ($10B), and Singapore ($6.28B).
Main local online stores
Lazada, OLX Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Zalora, Metrodeal, Ensogo, Ebay, Lamudi, Carmudi, Autodeal, Zipmatch.
Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (61.1 out of 100) ranked 15th out of 45 countries in Asia Pacific ranked 80th worldwide out of 186 countries (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 11th out of South East Asian, East
Asian, and Oceanian countries, 59th out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datar
Service imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service export (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Philippines observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Philippines is not specialized in
Source: OEC
Preferred payment methods in the Philippines in 2019
Source: OEC
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
Filipino, English
Information channels
Powerful commercial interests control or influence much of the media. The lively TV scene is dominated by free-to-air networks ABS-CBN and GMA. A number of Manila-based networks broadcast in local languages. Cable TV has extensive reach. Films, comedies and entertainment shows attract the largest audiences. There are hundreds of radio stations. Manila Broadcasting Company is a leading network. The private press is vigorous, comprising hundreds of newspaper titles. The most popular are Filipino-language tabloids, which can be prone to sensationalism. Press freedom is guaranteed under the constitution. Government censorship is not a serious problem, but the Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, says US-based Freedom House. “Private militias, often hired by local politicians, silence journalists with complete impunity,” says Reporters Without Borders.
There is no systematic censorship of online content, says Freedom House.
The press
Philippine Star – daily
The Daily Tribune – daily
Philippine Daily Inquirer – daily
Malaya Business Insight – daily
Manila Bulletin – daily
Manila Times – daily
Business World – daily
Television
ABS-CBN – commercial
GMA Network – commercial
ETC – commercial
People’s Television – government-owned
Radio
ABS-CBN – operates stations nationally
GMA Network – operates stations nationally
Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC) – operates stations nationally
Radio Mindanao Network – operates more than 50 stations nationwide
Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS) – government-run, operates 31 stations nationwide with emphasis on news, public affairs
News agency
Philippines News Agency – government-run
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
68% penetration, 76.01 million
Share of web traffic by device
51.06% mobile phones, 47.14% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.79% tablet devices, others 0.01%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
18.68 mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
46.44 mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 140%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 96.5%
Most popular web search engines
Google (94.83%), Bing (2.85%), Yahoo (1.26%), Petal Search (0.75%), Ecosia (0.24%), DuckduckGo (0.1%)
Most used social media
Facebook (85.29%), Twitter (4.63%), YouTube (4.02%), Instagram (3.11%), Pinterest (1.61%), Reddit (0.93%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
65.87 yrs (2017)
Healthcare expenditure
4.08% of GDP
Average age of the population
25.7 yrs (2020)
Gender
The Philippines are a matriarchal society. Women occupy high positions in society, politics, academia, and the professions. The Philippines have had two lady Presidents. Strong Philippine NGOs led by women have played dominant roles. While there is gender equality in the Philippines, there is a great appreciation for gentlemanly manners and etiquette.
Class
Based on income and wealth, Filipinos can generally be classified into the upper class, middle class, and lower class. While the very rich or upper class comprise a very small percentage of the population, they own or earn the majority of the wealth of the country. The majority of the population is in the lower class and they own or earn very little of the country’s wealth. A sizable amount of Filipinos employed overseas are able to sustain their family through overseas remittance.
Religion
The Philippines is predominantly Roman Catholic. Other religions include Islam, Protestantism, Aglipay, the Church of Christ, and Buddhism. There are Catholic Chapels and Mosques in the shopping malls. The Filipinos observe holidays during the holy week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday), All Saints Day (November 1), and Christmas. During those times, people are involved in church activities and family life with work and business essentially coming to a halt.
Ethnicity
The Philippines is one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world. With 7,107 islands; about eleven languages and eighty-seven dialects are spoken in the Philippines. There are strong ties for people of the same ethnic groups. There are also varied pockets of indigenous populations in remote hilly and mountain areas.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Languages research
Filipino dialects
Legend
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Bikol
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Waray
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Cebuano
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Hiligaynon
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Tagalog
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Ilocano
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Uninhabited
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Alexis Gerard, Unsplash