Four out of ten Filipinos were never married, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday, Feb 17.
Citing the 2020 Census of Population and Housing, among the household population aged ten years and above, 34.26 million persons (39.7%) were never married, while 33.87 million persons (39.2%) were married.
The remaining populations consisted of 14.7% in common-law or live-in marital arrangements, 4.5% widowed, and 1.9% divorced, separated, or annulled.
Noting that single Filipinos were higher than married, data also showed that the number of married persons has increased.
"The percentage of married persons in 2020 was very close to that in 2015. However, despite such close ratios, their number increased by 1.52 million from 32.35 million in 2015 to 33.87 million in 2020," PSA said.
The percentage of Filipino partners in common-law or live-in marital arrangements increased from 9.2% in 2015 to 14.7% in 2020.
This was also seen in divorced, separated, and annulled, while the percentage in widows remained.
"The same trend was observed among those divorced/separated/annulled, registering 1.9 percent in 2020 from 1.5 percent in 2015. On the other hand, the percentage of widows remained the same in 2015 and 2020 at 4.5 percent," it read.
More single men
There was a higher proportion of single men among the never-married persons, with 42.7%, than 36.7% of single women.
Married men were lower with 39.0% than 39.4% of married women which was also in the same trend with live-in arrangements.
"Similarly, 14.6 percent of males and 14.7 percent of females were in common-law/live-in marital arrangements," it added.
BARMM has the highest proportion of singles
The data for single or never-married individuals was highest in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) with 50.5%.
There were followed by Region V-Bicol with 42.7% and Region IX-Zamboanga Peninsula with 41.0%.
Region II- Cagayan Valley has the lowest proportion of never-married individuals at 36.7%.
Meanwhile, Region II has the highest proportion of married persons with 47.6 percent followed by Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 44.9%, Region XII–SOCCSKSARGEN at 44.3%, BARMM at 44.2%, and Region IX at 41.5%.
Most live-in couples in NCR
Partners in common-law or live-in marital arrangements were highest in National Capital Region (NCR) with 20.1%, followed by Region VIII at 18.7%, and Region IV-A-CALABARZON at 17.6%.
NCR was also highest in the number of divorced, separated, or annulled at 2.6%.
"The statistics presented in this report were based on the information provided by the respondent or any responsible household member who answered the questions and gave correct information about all the household members," PSA said.
The data was collected by asking respondents, "Is _____ single, married, common-law/live-in, widowed, or divorced/separated/annulled?”
