Why more Filipino couples delay, deprioritize having children

The lack of confidence in raising children due to rising prices of goods and services is compelling Filipino couples to delay or deprioritize childbearing, a recent study conducted by the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) has disclosed.

The same study, according to CPD Executive Director Lisa Grace S. Bersales, revealed that the reinforcement of the belief and perception of lack of financial capacity and insufficient income can be traced to the economic uncertainties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic starting in March 2020.

Bersales said that while the downtrend on childbearing was observed starting 2017, the drop was more pronounced in 2020 as only 1,528,684 babies were born—from the pre-2017 data of 1.7 million—and further dipped further in 2021 to 1,364,739 babies born.

However, there was a rebound in 2022 with 1,455,393 when the economy started to recover.

“Our recent study supports the assumption that Filipinos, even before the Covid-19 health situation, were already keen with their mindsets of delaying life-defining events such as dating, marriages and having children. These preferences were reinforced by the shocks in broader socioeconomic conditions, and the rise in the level of uncertainties in various aspects of the pandemic,” said Bersales.

“We are now monitoring whether these fertility behaviors have become the norm post-pandemic,” she added.

But overall, Bersales said Philippine Statistics Authority’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics or CRVS has disclosed that the majority of the country’s regions were already displaying a downturn in the total number of registered births.

From 2017 to 2022 for instance, she said that the total fertility rate of the Philippines went down from 2.7 to 1.9 percent.

Bersales also disclosed that in the same period, Filipino women who want no more children decreased from 52.6 percent to 48.8 percent and those wanting to have a child soon from 15.1 percent to 13.9 percent.

The study 

The study was commissioned by the CPD and was conducted by the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute through a Focus Group Discussion.

A Focus Group Discussion, popularly referred to in the academe as FGD, is a form of qualitative research wherein people with the same experience and background are grouped together for an interactive sharing of experience and thoughts to get deeper into a research topic. 

In this case, the research topic is titled “Fertility Decline during COVID-19 Pandemic.”

“Key informant interviews revealed that the decisions of couples not to have children during the global health crisis increased the acceptability of modern family planning (FP) methods,” the CPD statement read, referring to the study.

The case of contraceptives

In delaying and deprioritizing childbearing among Filipino couples, Bersales explained the use of contraceptives indeed played a key role.

She said that in terms of the family planning, the use of contraceptives rose from 40 percent in 2017 to 42 percent in 2022.

In the same study, Bersales said that the female partner still carries the burden of family planning amid the increased dependency on family planning methods, of which the pandemic was deemed as a key catalyst for the hike in their usage.

“The study revealed that female-centric methods such as pills, ligation or female sterilization, and injectables are still the most preferred methods, and that women still carry out decisions with regard to FP as compared to men,” said Bersales.

‘Positive’ effects

“One positive result that came out from the pandemic was the more conscious consideration of couples’ and families’ socioeconomic capacities, as well as preparedness in their childbearing decisions,” said Bersales.

The CPD has been aggressively pushing for effective management of the Philippine population as a measure of economic relief, lower competition for employment, possible poverty reduction, and the realization of the demographic dividend through the ‘Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action’.

The Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action outlines the strategies enabling and capacitating our institutions and local governments as the CPD partners in optimizing the demographic dividend.

“In the short-term, the increasing capacity of couples and women to attain their fertility intentions will bring a measure of economic relief, lower competition for employment, possible poverty reduction, and the realization of the demographic dividend which the country is set to reap,” said Bersales.

“For the long view, we can expect a larger aging population, a decrease in income tax collection, and possibly a need to fill an impending workforce gap,” she added.

Bersales also stressed the importance of the CPD recommendations for post-pandemic interventions to address the country’s current fertility situation.

“Foremost is the inclusion of the family planning program as a key response to emergency or crisis situations, with a more targeted approach that will address varying concerns of different population groups,” said Bersales.

“While the country’s total fertility rate trend currently favors our socioeconomic indicators, the challenge is to sustain the accompanying benefits,” she emphasized.

The Philippine population was projected to be at 113 million last year, which is two million short from the expected 115 million by CPD.

The PSA, however, earlier, disclosed that by 2055, the Philippine population woild be at around 138 million.