Population growth decline boosts demographic dividends

Increased use of various family planning methods has been instrumental in the decline in population growth from 1.63 percent in 2015-2020 to only 0.80 percent in 2020-2024. This report, issued over the weekend by the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) points to “substantial progress in family planning” as being instrumental in “the historic decline in the Philippines’ fertility rate to 1.9 percent.”

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Explaining the significance of these new indicators, CPD Executive Director Lisa Grace Bersales notes that the country is “witnessing a transformative period for family planning.” The low fertility rate is directly linked to the record rate of family planning users. She notes further: “This signals a powerful societal shift toward planned parenthood and enables the economy to harvest its demographic dividend.”

In simple terms, the demographic dividend is a temporary economic boost a country can get when its population's age structure shifts in such a way that there is a larger proportion of working-age adults compared to children and the elderly. This happens as a country's birth and death rates fall, resulting in more people in the workforce relative to dependents and creating opportunities for increased productivity, higher savings, and faster economic growth.