The country’s fertility rate has fallen to 1.7. At the same time, new health data show that many Filipino women still face questions about when—and whether—they want their next pregnancy.
For years, the Philippines ranked among the countries with the highest fertility rates in Southeast Asia.
That picture is changing.
The Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2025 National Demographic and Health Survey puts the country’s total fertility rate at 1.7 children per woman, down from 1.9 in 2022 and 4.1 in 1993. The figure has now fallen below the population-replacement level.
At first glance, that may seem like a simple demographic story: Filipino families are having fewer children.
But fertility statistics tell us how many children women are having on average. They don’t necessarily tell us whether people wanted, planned or intended every pregnancy.
And that’s where the conversation about family planning becomes more complicated.
What the Numbers Tell Us—and What They Don’t
The 2025 NDHS found that 57.3% of currently married women aged 15 to 49 wanted no more children, including women who had undergone sterilization or whose husbands had. Another 16.2% wanted to wait at least two years before their next birth, while 13.4% wanted another child within two years.
These numbers illustrate something important: fertility is not simply about how many children people have.
It is also about timing and choice.
Family planning refers to the ability of individuals and couples to decide whether and when to have children, including the use of contraceptive methods when they choose to prevent or space pregnancies.
The latest PSA data show that 33.4% of women aged 15–49 were using some form of contraception in 2025, with 28.2% using a modern method. Women in this age group most commonly used pills, followed by injectables and IUDs.
But access to and use of these services vary across different groups.
Among currently married women, teenagers aged 15–19, women with no formal education, and women in the poorest wealth quintile had the highest levels of unmet need for family planning. Rural women also had slightly higher unmet need than urban women.
What Is “Unmet Need”?
The phrase can sound technical, but the idea is relatively simple.
In demographic surveys, unmet need for family planning generally refers to women who want to postpone or stop childbearing but are not currently using contraception, including certain women whose current or recent pregnancy was unintended.
It can reflect many circumstances: availability of services, cost, distance, information, concerns about side effects, personal preferences, partner considerations, or simply difficulty maintaining access to a method.
The reasons can be deeply individual.
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Why Birth Spacing Matters
The timing between pregnancies is also a health consideration.
Research on repeat pregnancy among young Filipino women has found associations with factors including younger age at first birth and lower socioeconomic status. A Philippine study examining demographic-health-survey data from 1993 to 2013 found particularly persistent patterns of repeated pregnancy among adolescents.
This is one reason postpartum care can be an important point for discussing family planning.
A woman who has just given birth may already be connected to the health system through prenatal care, delivery and postpartum visits. Making information and appropriate contraceptive options available during this period can help women make decisions about whether and when they want another pregnancy.
Where PhilHealth Comes In
This is where a current policy discussion is taking shape.
PhilHealth expanded its maternity and postpartum benefits in 2026. Its postpartum-care guidelines specifically provide for family-planning commodities appropriate to the client’s needs, including combined oral contraceptives, progestin-only pills and injectables. Providers may also refer postpartum clients to a YAKAP facility to obtain prescriptions for commodities through the GAMOT package.
PhilHealth has also been working with the United Nations Population Fund on maternal health, family planning and access to sexual and reproductive health services.
Meanwhile, Dare to Care Alliance+ and partner organizations are calling for further expansion of PhilHealth coverage, including broader access to oral contraceptives and injectables through GAMOT and maternity-related benefits, as well as full funding for PhilHealth in the proposed 2027 national budget.
Those are the coalition’s policy recommendations.
Whether and how these proposals should be adopted is a matter for PhilHealth and policymakers to consider.
The Bigger Question
The falling fertility rate is real.
So is the continuing demand for family planning.
And the two facts can exist at the same time.
A country can have fewer births overall while some women still find it difficult to obtain the information, method or service they want to delay or avoid a pregnancy.
That tells us something basic:
people’s reproductive circumstances are not all the same.
Good health policy has to account for that complexity.
For some families, having children is a deeply cherished part of life. For others, spacing pregnancies may be important for maternal recovery, finances, work, education or the care of children already at home. Some may want another child soon; others may not want another pregnancy at all.
Family planning, at its most fundamental, is about having accurate information, appropriate health services and meaningful choices.
The numbers can tell us where the country is going.
The more interesting question may be whether every Filipino woman has the support she needs to decide where her own family is going.
Editorial Note
This article explores recent Philippine data on fertility, family planning, contraceptive use, birth spacing, and access to reproductive-health services. It is intended to provide context and information, not to tell individuals or families what choices they should make.
The recommendations regarding PhilHealth coverage discussed in this article are those of Dare to Care Alliance+ and its partner organizations. They are presented as part of the current public conversation and should not be read as an endorsement by Joyful Wellness.
Joyful Wellness believes that good health begins with being informed, understanding one’s options, and having access to appropriate care. Ultimately, decisions about family size, pregnancy, and reproductive health are deeply personal and belong to individuals and families.
*Photo by Ignacio Campo on Unsplash
References
- Philippine Statistics Authority. 2025 National Demographic and Health Survey: Key Indicators. 2026.
PSA – 2025 NDHS - Philippine Statistics Authority. Fertility Steadily Declines: Results from the Key Indicators of the 2025 National Demographic and Health Survey. 2026.
PSA – Fertility Steadily Declines - Philippine Statistics Authority. 2025 NDHS: Contraceptive Use and Demand for Family Planning. 2026.
PSA – 2025 NDHS Statistics - Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. Circular No. 2026-0006: Expansion of Maternity Care Benefits for Non-Hospital and Outpatient Facilities (Revision 1). 2026.
PhilHealth Circular No. 2026-0006 - Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. UNFPA, PhilHealth Seal Deal to Advance RPRH, UHC. 2026.
PhilHealth – UNFPA Partnership - Maravilla JC, Betts KS, Alati R. Exploring the Risks of Repeated Pregnancy Among Adolescents and Young Women in the Philippines. Maternal and Child Health Journal. 2019.
- Maravilla JC, Betts KS, Alati R. Trends in Repeated Pregnancy Among Adolescents in the Philippines from 1993 to 2013. Reproductive Health. 2018.
- Dare to Care Alliance+. Behind the Falling Fertility Rate: Why the Philippines Must Close the Gap on Family Planning Access and Address Rapid Repeat Pregnancies. Press statement. 2026.
