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History reveals that the original inhabitants were the Tagalogs. But due to interaction
with other cultures and migrations one finds that the Visayans, Bicolanos, llocanos,
Maranaos, Chinese and Spaniards have settled here. One also finds the Americans,
Arabs, Indonesians, Indians and Koreans adding to the Manila population who had
come at different periods of history.
Manila has been a place where the people from different parts of the world
have settled and different times of history. The Manila population is the manifestation
of the cultural interaction that had taken place in history. The Spanish invaders
conquered the city in 1571 and ruled till 1898. The popular Intramuros region
is where one would find the best example of the
In the recent years (in the 1970's and 1980's) there have been several factors
that have affected the population figures. The migrations from the village to
the city and the resettlement pattern that brought about migrations from the
densely populated areas to the sparsely populated regions. Another trend affecting
the Manila population is the temporary migrations to other countries for work
and this has been mare than half a million. The remittance sent by these migrants
has helped garner foreign exchange.
About 12 percent of Philippines population is concentrated in Manila metropolitan
area. During 1960's the rate of growth of Manila population was 5 percent whereas
the national growth rate was 3 percent. But the trend slowed down in 1980's
to 2.8 percent but the outlying areas continued the growth.
Manila population trend reveals that it has got the highest population density
compared to any other city in the world as it has just 38.55 square km worth
of area. The 1999 figures reveal that the Manila population was around 1,580,924.
The rapid growth of population has led to problems like overcrowding, traffic
congestion, pollution and housing problems.
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