The Philippines Is Rich

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

The World Bank published July 2, 2025, its latest tome, the World Bank Development Indicators (WDI), the world's premier collection of cross-country comparable data on development.

Compared with the development indicators of more than 200 other countries, the Philippines is among the elite 15 percent of countries, in population and income.

The World Bank corrects our 2025 population figure. It's 116 million, not 120 million as earlier projected by our own Philippine Statistics Authority. That makes the Philippines the world's 14th largest country. Being No. 14 in population also makes us the world's 14th largest consumer market.

Among the 10 member-nations of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), the Philippines is the second largest in population, 116 million, next only to Indonesia's 283.488 million, and larger than Vietnam, which has 100.98 million; Thailand, 71.66 million; Myanmar, 35.55 million; Lao PDR 7.77 million; Singapore, 6.03 million and Brunei, 463,000.

The Philippines is a rich country, with an economy valued at $461.6 billion in nominal GDP and $518 billion in Gross National Income (GNI). The $518 billion is the 28th richest or largest on earth.

Filipinos are middle income. They have gross income per capita of $4,470. Multiply $4,470 by P57.84—the end of 2024 peso-dollar rate—and you get P258,544.80 a year or P21,545.40 a month. Or P718.18 a day.