Recent statistics on population show that the Philippines still has a high
population growth rate, primarily fuelled by high fertility rates—albeit
much lower than it was in the previous decades—and there is a highpositive correlation between fertility rates and poverty incidence at the
household level. While the high fertility level is not the sole cause of
poverty, it imposes a major constraint on the family as limited resources are
allocated to each member, which in turn limits human capital formation
and household savings.