Location: southeastern Asia; an archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam
Area: 300,000 square km (NZ: 268,680 square km)
Make-up: 7,641 islands
Religious groups: Roman Catholic 80.6%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.5%, other Christian 4.5%, Muslim 6.4%, others/none 3.2%
Population: at least 110,000,000
Life expectancy: Male, 66.67yrs (NZ, 80yrs); Female, 74.15yrs (NZ, 83.5yrs)
Major infectious diseases: food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhoea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever; water contact disease: leptospirosis; vectorborne diseases: Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever & malaria are high risk in some locations; animal contact disease: rabies
About 23% of the Philippine population live on less than US$2/day
Almost 16% of the population experience regular involuntary hunger
