Philippines

#ibmcsc philippines14

The Philippines were named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos during his expedition in 1542 named the islands of Leyte and Samar Felipinas after the then Prince of Asturias.

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands with a total land area, including inland bodies of water, of approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi).[129] Its 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi) of coastline makes it the country with the 5th longest coastline in the world. It consists under three main geographical divisions:

Luzon
Visayas
Mindanao

Its capital city is Manila while its most populous city is Quezon City; both are part of Metro Manila.

With a population of at least 99 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12 million Filipinos live overseas, comprising one of the world’s largest diasporas.

According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is a standardized version of Tagalog. Altough ethnologue lists 175 individual languages in the Philippines, most native languages are part of the Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages.

As a result of Spanish cultural influence, the Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. More than 80% of the population are Christians.

The national economy of the Philippines is the 39th largest in the world. Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits. A newly industrialized country, the Philippine economy has been transitioning from one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing.

Its unit of currency is the Philippine peso (₱ or PHP). (1USD – +-44PH July/14)

The Philippines’ rainforests is one of the ten most biologically megadiverse countries and is at or near the top in terms of biodiversity per unit area. Around 1,100 land vertebrate species can be found in the Philippines including over 100 mammal species and 170 bird species not thought to exist elsewhere.