Philippines

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands, with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers. The islands are broadly categorized into three main geographical divisions: from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. With a population of over 114 million, it is the world's thirteenth-most-populous country. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. It has diverse ethnicities and a rich culture. Manila is the country's capital, and its most populated city is Quezon City. Both are within Metro Manila. Negritos, the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. The adoption of animism, Hinduism with Buddhist influence, and Islam established island-kingdoms. Extensive overseas trade with neighbors such as the late Tang or Song e

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its 2026 report, the Philippines is the world's 35th largest economy with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $501.692 billion. As a newly industrialized country, the Philippine economy has been transitioning from an agricultural base to one with more emphasis on services and manufacturing. The country's labor force is about 52.09 million with an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent as of February 2026. Gross international reserves totalled US$106.64 billion as of March 2026. Debt-to-GDP ratio decreased to 60.2 percent at the end of 2023 from a 17-year high 63.7 percent at the end of the third quarter of that year, and indicated resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The country's unit of currency is the Philippine peso (₱ or PHP). The Philippines is a net importer, and a debtor nation. As of 2020, the country's main export markets were China, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore; primary exports included integrated circuits, office machinery and parts, electrical transformers, insulated wiring, and semiconductors. Its primary import markets that year were China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Indon

Prehistory (pre–900). There is evidence of early hominins living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago. Bones from Callao Cave potentially represent an otherwise unknown species, Homo luzonensis, who lived 50,000 to 67,000 years ago. The oldest modern human remains on the islands are from the Tabon Caves of Palawan, U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago. Tabon Man is presumably a Negrito, among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants descended from the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along southern Asia to the now-sunken landmasses of Sundaland and Sahul. The first Austronesians reached the Philippines from Taiwan around 2200 BC, settling the Batanes Islands (where they built stone fortresses known as ijangs) and northern Luzon. Jade artifacts have been dated to 2000 BC, with lingling-o jade items made in Luzon with raw materials from Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four societies: hunter-gatherer tribes, warrior societies, highland plutocracies, and port principalities. The Philippines prior to foreign colonization was believed to be egalitarian. Early states (900–1565). The earliest known surviving written record in the Philippines is the 900 AD Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which was written in Old Malay using the early Kawi script. By the 14th century, several large coastal settlements emerged as trading centers and became the focus of societal changes. Some polities had exchanges with other states throughout Asia. Trade with China began during the late Tang dynasty, and expanded during the Song dynasty. Throughout the second millennium AD, some polities were part of the tributary system of China. With extensive trade and diplomacy, this brought Southern Chinese merchants and migrants from Southern Fujian, who would gradually settle and intermix in the Philippines. Indian cultural traits such as linguistic terms and religious practices began to spread in the Philippines during the 14th century, via the Indianized Hindu Majapahit Empire. By the 15th century, Islam was established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there. Polities founded in the Philippines between the 10th and 16th centuries include Maynila, Tondo, Namayan, Pangasinan, Caboloan, Cebu, Butuan, Maguindanao, Lanao, Sulu, and Ma-i. The early polities typically had a three-tier