Philippines reports 1.455 million live births in 2022

A total of 1,455,393 live births were recorded in the Philippines in 2022 or an average of three babies born in the country per minute, reflecting an acceleration after the slowdown during the pandemic, government data released on Monday showed.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the 1.455 million live births in the country last year brought the crude birth rate (CBR) to 13.0 or 13 births per 1,000 population. On average, there were 3,987 babies born daily, or 166 babies born per hour.

This is the first growth in three years, as live births declined by 10.7% to 1.365 million in 2021, and by 8.7% to 1.529 million in 2020, when the country was mostly locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Live births increased by 0.3% in 2019 to 1.674 million.

More males were born during the year with 758,038 live births or 52.1% while female births stood at 697,355 or 47.9%, reflecting a sex ratio at birth of 109 males per 100 females.

Broken down geographically, 56.5% of the live births were born in Luzon, 18.7% in the Visayas region, and 24.8% in Mindanao.

Among regions, the higher number of birth occurrences was in Calabarzon at 14.1%, Central Luzon at 11.7%, Central Visayas at 8.2%, the Bicol Region at 6.7%, and Western Visayas at 6.2%.

Most of the registered births happened in September at 143,235 or 9.8%, equivalent to an average of 4,775 births per day or 199 births per hour. This was followed by October at 137,800 or 9.5%, November at 135,200 or 9.3%, December at 129,700 or 8.9%, and August at 126,800 or 8.7%.

Majority or 93.4% of the births in the country were attended by health professionals — 65.0% by physicians and 26.5% by midwives — while 6.2% were delivered by a hilot or a traditional birth attendant.

Most of the births or 92.3% were in a hospital, birthing clinic, lying in a outpatient care center, and the like while 7.3% were delivered at home and 0.4% were delivered in other locations.

In terms of the parents, majority of the mothers — 406,767 or 27.9% — were aged 25-29 years. This was followed by those aged 20 to 24 which accounted for 23.7%, and those aged 30 to 34 which accounted for 22.0%. Mothers aged 15 to 19 accounted for 10.1%.

More than half of the live births last year — 844,909 or 58.1% — were out of wedlock, with the highest number of illegitimate children recorded in Calabarzon with a 16.4% share, the National Capital Region (NCR) with 13.2%, and Central Luzon with 12.0%.

The highest proportion of illegitimate births were to adolescent mothers aged under 15 with 95.1%, followed by mothers aged 15 to 19 years with 90.0%, and mothers aged 20 to 24 with 76.4%.

Nine in every ten births were registered within 30 days of occurrence, with Calabarzon recording the highest share in timely registered births at 14.7%. It was followed by Central Luzon with 11.5%, and NCR with 11.4%.—AOL, GMA Integrated News