There are 171 indigenous languages spoken in the Philippines. Cebuano, the nation’s most widely-spoken indigenous language, has twenty million speakers. The country’s two least spoken languages, Ata and Ratagnon, each have no more than five speakers and are nearly extinct.
The Philippines is the only Asian nation with a predominantly Christian population.
The Republic of the Philippines, commonly referred to as the Philippines, is a democratic republic located in Southeast Asia. The islands are named in honor of King Philip II of Spain (1556-1598).
The first people to occupy the Philippine Islands migrated there thirty thousand years ago from the Malay Peninsula. Much like the first settlers of the Americas, the first settlers of the Philippines were able to cross a land bridge that existed at the time. Several subsequent migrations occurred by sea over the following thousands of years.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Muslim traders from Indonesia spread Islam and their influence among the peoples who inhabited the Philippine Islands. The Spaniards were the first Europeans to spot the Philippine islands on March 16, 1521. Ferdinand Magellan claimed the Philippine island of Cebu for Spain, but was killed shortly thereafter by a local chieftain. Later, the Spanish founded their first settlement in 1565, and founded Manila in 1571. Due to its strategic location in the South Pacific, the Philippines were coveted by all the colonial countries. However, for more than three hundred years, the Spanish ruled the Philippines. Under their rule, the islands became a major port of trade, as well as a refueling point for Spanish ships.
On December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Spanish rule over the Philippines officially came to an end. The Philippines, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, were ceded to the United States. However, Filipinos had already declared their independence and, in February 1899, a two-year war between Filipinos and Americans began. The United States ultimately defeated the Filipinos and, under U.S. rule, a new government and a free public school system, both modeled on the systems used in the United States, were set up in the Philippines.
On December 8, 1941, only hours after they had attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked the Philippines. By May 1942, the Japanese had forced the surrender of U.S. forces and gained control of the islands. It was not until the formal Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945 that the United States regained control of the islands. Philippine independence from the United States followed less than a year later on July 4, 1946.
Immigration
Filipinos first settled in North America before American independence from England. Many Filipino sailors traveling between Spanish colonies were known to have abandoned their ships when they reached the New World colonies. Several of these men started new lives in Spain’s North American colonies. Evidence exists of early Filipino settlers in California and Texas, as well as the Louisiana settlements of Manila Village and St. Malo, which is believed to have been founded in the 1760s. However, large-scale Filipino immigration to the United States did not occur until the early 20th century.
Between 1903 and Philippine independence in 1946, more than 150,000 Filipinos came to the United States, most to work in California and Hawaii’s agricultural industries. Much like the Chinese immigrants who had come earlier, the majority of Filipino immigrants were male laborers. In California, it is estimated that the ratio between Filipino men and women was as much as fourteen to one. This gender imbalance, coupled with widespread racism and related anti-miscegenation laws, resulted in the limited growth of the Filipino population for many years.
A second wave of Filipino immigration occurred between Philippine independence in 1946 and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. During this period, more than 34,000 Filipinos came to the United States as workers, war brides and family members of Filipino Americans. Since 1965, a third wave of Filipino immigration has taken place. As of the 2000 Census, there were more than 2,385,000 Filipinos and persons of Filipino ancestry living in the United States, which makes the Filipino community the second largest Asian community in the country.
The Philippine archipelago is situated in the Pacific Ocean in Southeast Asia. The Philippine islands are located east of Vietnam, between the South China Sea in the west, the Luzon Strait in the North, the Philippine Sea in the east, and the Sulu and Celebes Seas in the south.
Of the 7,107 islands in the archipelago, only 1,000 are populated, and more than ninety percent of the total land area exists on the archipelago’s largest eleven islands. Most of the islands are mountainous with small coastal plains, although inland mountain valleys are found on the larger islands. The archipelago is slightly larger in land area than the State of Arizona.
The Philippines are home to more than ninety-one million people, which is equivalent to the combined populations of four of America’s largest states: California, New York, Texas and Illinois.
Filipinos have migrated in large numbers to the urban areas of the Philippines during the last thirty years and urban dwellers now account for fifty-eight percent of the nation’s population. Most of the population lives in the inland plain and valley regions on the big islands of Luzon and Mindanao.
28.1% Tagalogs
13.1% Cebuano
9% Ilocano
7.6% Bisaya & Binisaya
7.5% Ilongos
6% Bicolanos
3.4% Waray-Waray
1% Chinese
24.3% Split between other groups
Filipino and English are the official languages of the Philippines. Filipino, which is based on Tagalog, is required study in the nation’s schools and is commonly used on television and radio. English is commonly used in business, government and higher education.
The majority of Filipinos speak two, if not three, languages fluently, and most speak one of the country’s 171 languages as their primary language. Although all of the indigenous languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, few are mutually intelligible. The differences between languages reflect the many waves of migration from the Asian mainland, and the development of groups apart from one another on the thousand inhabited islands of the archipelago.
The most commonly spoken languages are Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, the five Bicolano language groups, Waray-Waray, Pampangan, Pangasinan, Maguindanao, Tausug and Maranao. Additionally, a majority of the Chinese population, nearly six hundred thousand people, speak Min Nan.
More than ninety-seven percent of Filipinos are Christians, the majority of which are Roman Catholics. The Philippines is unique in that it is the only Asian nation with a predominantly Christian population. The Philippines is also home to small populations of Muslims, Buddhists and Animists.
Filipino cuisine has been influenced by many cultures, including Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Indian, Malay and Japanese. The traditional Filipino diet is quite healthy and incorporates many different herbs and spices. Boiled rice, garlic and onions are staples of the Filipino diet and are eaten with almost every meal. Other common foods include ground corn, rice noodles (pancit), mixed vegetables (panakbet), fish, pork, poultry and various fruits. A uniquely Filipino drink is tuba, a wine made from the fermented sap of coconut trees.
There has long been a Filipino presence in the United States, but with the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, the Filipino population has grown steadily. It is estimated that there were more than 340,000 Filipinos in the U.S. in 1970. Ten years later, in 1980, the population was more than 780,000; and by 1990, the Filipino population was more than 1,400,000.
As of 2000, the United States was home to more than 2,385,216 Filipinos and persons of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos account for .85% of the total U.S. population, and they are the country’s second largest Asian population
Filipino Americans live throughout the United States, but nearly one-half of the total population, almost 665,000 people, lives in California. Hawaii is home to the second largest Filipino population, which numbers over 100,000. The states of Illinois, New York and New Jersey each have Filipino populations of more than 60,000 people. Washington, Texas and Florida each have Filipino populations of more than 40,000 people. Virginia and Nevada both have Filipino populations of more than 30,000 people.
1: an expanse of water with many scattered islands
2: a group of islands
