SOME 30.6% of the Philippine population consists of internal migrants, defined as those currently living in jurisdictions where they were not born, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
According to the PSA’s 2020 Census of Population and Housing, the category, which the PSA calls “lifetime migrants,” numbered 29.87 million.
Of the so-called lifetime migrants, 21.48 million people were from a different province while 8.23 million were from a different city or municipality within the same province.
The foreign immigrant population was estimated at 167,032 individuals.
The non-migrant population — those who remained in the province of their birth — was 69.1% of the total.
The report defined the population as those aged at least five years. It calls this subset the “household population.”
Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Metro Manila and Central Luzon were home to the most lifetime migrants. Calabarzon had 6.23 million individuals, or 20.8% of the total. The National Capital Region had 5.47 million (18.3%) and Central Luzon 3.33 million (11.2%).
BARMM or the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had the least number of lifetime migrants with 327,316 individuals or 1.1% of the total.
The overseas worker population in 2020 was 1.97 million individuals or 2.6% of the household population, consisting of 51.8% (1.02 million) females and 48.2% males (947,667).
The biggest cohort of overseas workers was aged between 30 and 34 (339,098 individuals or 17.2%). The 35-39 age group accounted for 315,291 or 16% and 25 to 29 294,926 or 15%.
Calabarzon was home to 18.9% of overseas Filipino workers (372,301 individuals) followed by Central Luzon with 14.4% (284,267) and Metro Manila 11.3% (221,368).
The census was conducted in September 2020 with May 1, 2020, as the reference date. — Abigail Marie P. Yraola
