Nearly 6 in 10 Filipino babies are now born outside marriage, says PSA

The Filipino family is changing—and the numbers make it impossible to ignore.

More than half of all registered babies in the Philippines are now born to unmarried parents, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In 2023, 842,728 babies—or 58.2 percent of the country’s registered live births—were born to unmarried parents.

Put simply, for every 10 babies registered in the Philippines, almost six were born outside marriage.

And this is not a one-year anomaly.

In 2022, the figure was similarly high: around 845,000 babies, or 58.1 percent of registered births, were classified as illegitimate. In 2021, the proportion was 57.1 percent.

Where are the numbers highest?

In sheer numbers, CALABARZON accounted for the biggest share of the country’s non-marital births in 2023, followed by Metro Manila and Central Luzon.

Previous PSA data also show just how dramatically the pattern differs across regions. In 2022, nearly seven in 10 registered births in Metro Manila were classified as illegitimate.

BARMM stood at the opposite end, with the overwhelming majority of its registered births classified as legitimate.

Young mothers account for a large share

Age is another striking part of the story.

In 2022, mothers aged 20 to 24 accounted for more than 263,000 illegitimate births, or nearly a third of the national total. Women aged 25 to 29 followed.

The figures point to a Philippine society where having children and getting married increasingly do not necessarily happen together.

But statistics about “illegitimate” children should be handled carefully. The word is a legal classification under Philippine law. It says nothing about a child’s value, dignity or the strength of the family raising them.

What the 58-percent figure does reveal is a profound shift in the Filipino family.

For the majority of babies being born in the Philippines, marriage is no longer part of the picture at the time of birth.