Philippines

Commonwealth of the Philippines Komonwelt ng Pilipinas (Filipino)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Maka-Diyos, Maka-tao, Makakalikasan at Makabansa Filipino "For God, People, Nature, and Country"
Anthem: "Chosen Land" Royal anthem: "God Save the Queen"
Capital	Manila
Largest city	Rizal City
Official languages	English Filipino
Ethnic groups (2023)	26.0% Tagalog 14.3% Bisaya 8.0% Ilocano 8.0% Cebuano 7.9% Ilonggo 6.5% Bicolano 20.3% other
Religion	85.3% Christianity 78.8% Catholicism 6.5% other Christian 6.4% Islam 8.2% other / none
Demonym(s)	Filipino
Government	Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Alexandra
• Governor-General	Benjamin Madrigal Jr.
• Prime Minister	Martin Romualdez
Legislature	Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Independence from the United Kingdom
• Captaincy General of the Philippines	27 April 1565
• British Philippines	10 February 1763
• Philippine Revolution	23 August 1896
• Statute of Westminster 1931	11 December 1931
• The Philippines Act 1953	10 February 1953
Area
•	300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) (64th)
• Water (%)	0.61%
Population
• 2023 estimate	114,163,719 (12th)
• Density	363.45/km2 (941.3/sq mi) (37th)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$2.088 trillion (18th)
• Per capita	$18,289 (92nd)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$949.11 billion (20th)
• Per capita	$8,312 (87th)
Gini (2023)	36.0 medium
HDI (2023)	0.756 high (92nd)
Currency	Philippine peso (PHP)
Time zone	UTC+8 (UTC)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+63
ISO 3166 code	PH
Internet TLD	.ph

The Philippines, officially the Commonwealth of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia. Consisting of a grand total of 7,461 islands, the Philippines is largely made up of three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. An archipelagic nation, it is bordered by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the south while also sharing maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and northeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. With a population of roughly 114 million, it is the twentieth-most-populous country in the world and the seventh-most in Asia. Its capital is Manila while its largest city is Rizal City named after the Filipino nationalist and first prime minister José Rizal.

The archipelago that came to define the modern-day Philippines was first inhabited by the Negritos, followed by waves of Austronesian peoples. Following this, a mix of animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and later Islam saw the establishment of a number of island kingdoms which ruled the archipelago prior to the arrival of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan whose arrival, in turn, sparked Spanish colonization in Asia with the Philippines coming under the authority of New Spain as a general captaincy, thereby marking the beginning of the spread of Roman Catholicism by their Spanish overlords. In 1763, during the final stages of the Seven Years' War, British forces under William Draper invaded and occupied Manila, marking the end of Spanish control over the archipelago as the East India Company assumed control for the next century or so until it later became a crown colony in 1863. In 1896, the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution saw the country gradually trend towards a self-governing dominion which was achieved in 1931. During the Second World War, it was temporarily occupied by Japanese forces before later achieving full independence in 1953 as a Commonwealth realm, being the only country currently with the status in Southeast Asia.

A federal constitutional monarchy, the Philippines, in inheriting its governance structure from the period of British colonialism, is divided administratively into three states, namely the three islands groups that make up the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, each of which is headed by a governor while a prime minister serves as the head of government with a governor-general acting as the representative of the British monarch in their capacity as head of state. As a former British colony, its government is modeled extensively on the Westminster system with a bicameral parliament serving as the country's legislative body.

A founding member of various international organisations, the Philippines was among the earliest to found the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the East Asia Summit, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade bloc in the world. In addition, it is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and, given its strategic position, is also a major non-NATO ally with close military ties to the United States and the United Kingdom.