President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared as official the 2024 census, which recorded the total population as 112,729,484 as of July 1, 2024.

The President issued Proclamation 973 ordering the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in coordination with the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), to disseminate copies of the 2024 Census of Population: Population by Province, City/Municipality, and Barangay to all concerned government agencies and offices.

The census was conducted by the PSA from July to September 2024, with July 1, 2024 as the reference date, as per the proclamation signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on July 11.

The PSA is primarily responsible for conducting all national censuses and surveys, compiling sectoral statistics, consolidating selected administrative recording systems, and preparing national accounts.

According to the PSA, the Philippine population count reflected the total number of persons living in the country’s 18 administrative regions, as well as Filipinos in Philippine embassies, consulates, and missions abroad, as of July 1, 2024.

The country’s population in 2024 increased by 3.69 million from 109.04 million in 2020 to 112.73 million. The Philippine population growth rate slowed to 0.80 percent annually from 2020 to 2024, compared to the 1.63 percent growth rate from 2015 to 2020.

The PSA said that the slowdown in the growth rate may be driven by several interrelated factors, including declining fertility and birth rates, elevated mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic, and subdued migration activity.

The month of July 2024 was previously declared as the National Census and Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Month, as per Proclamation 627.

Executive Order 87 mandated the conduct of a mid-decade census to update the population count in all barangays nationwide. Presidential News Desk