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Among women aged 15 to 49 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.7 children per woman between 2022 to 2025. Over the same period, the TFR decreased to 2.0 from 4.8 children per woman in rural areas and to 1.5 from 3.5 children per woman in urban areas.
The Philippines is having fewer children than at any point in its recent history. According to the key indicators from the 2025 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the total fertility rate (TFR) among women aged 15–49 now stands at 1.7 children per woman for the three-year period before the survey. In 1993, it was 4.1.
The survey revealed findings from the following categories:
- Fertility
- Maternal care
- Family planning
- Child health and development
- Spousal violence
In this article, we will focus on the fertility rate in the region.
TFR
TFR is defined as the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years if she were to bear children at the current age-specific fertility rates. It is calculated from age-specific fertility rates for the three years before the survey — in this case, roughly 2022 to 2025 — using detailed pregnancy histories reported by women.
Among women aged 15 to 49 years, the TFR now stands at 1.7 children per woman for the three-year period preceding the survey. In 1993, it was 4.1.
Over the same period, the TFR decreased to 2.0 from 4.8 children per woman in rural areas and to 1.5 from 3.5 children per woman in urban areas, with fertility remaining consistently higher in rural areas.
The Age-Specific Fertility Rate (ASFR) was low among adolescents, with 22 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 years. Fertility rises into the mid‑20s, peaking at 94 births per 1,000 women aged 25 to 29, then declines to 84 births per 1,000 among women aged 30 to 34, and declined sharply thereafter.
By region, the TFR was lowest in Region IV-A (also known as Calabarzon) at 1.3 children per woman, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) and Negros Island Region (NIR), both at 1.4 children per woman. At the other end of the range, women in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have an average of 2.4 children, with Region IX (also known as the Zamboanga Peninsula) and Caraga also above the national average, at 2.3 and 2.2 children per woman, respectively.
By education level, the TFR was highest among those with some primary education, at 3.1 children per woman, and declined with higher educational attainment. A similar pattern appears across wealth groups: women in the poorest quintile have an average of 2.8 children, while those in the richest quintile have just 1.1.
Childbearing among teenage girls
In 2025, 4.9% of girls and young women aged 15 to 19 had ever been pregnant. This group includes those who had already given birth (3.5%), were pregnant at the time of the interview (1.3%), or had experienced a pregnancy loss (0.5%).
The percentage of teenage women who had ever been pregnant increased with age, rising from 1.5% among those aged 15 years to 9.7% among those aged 19 years. Teenage pregnancy was higher in rural areas (5.8%) than in urban areas (4.2%).
Some regions stand out with particularly high levels of teenage pregnancy. Region IX recorded the highest share, at 9.3%, followed by Region XII (also known as Soccskargen, central Mindanao, Philippines) and MIMAROPA, both at 8.2%.
By educational attainment, teenage girls with some primary education (17.2%) recorded the highest percentage of pregnancies. In terms of household wealth, teenage pregnancy was highest among those in the poorest quintile (9.4%) and lowest among those in the richest quintile (1.4%).
Per the report, the percentage of women aged 15 to 19 years who had begun childbearing includes those who had a live birth or were pregnant at the time of the interview. Since 1993, childbearing among teenage girls peaked at 10.1% in 2013 and declined to its lowest recorded level of 4.8 percent in 2025. Teenage childbearing was also at its lowest level recorded in urban areas (4.1%) and rural areas (5.6%) over the same period.
Fertility preferences
The survey also posed a question to women if they wanted more children and, if so, how long they would prefer to wait before the birth of the next child. The responses revealed that in 2025, about three out of five (57.3%) currently married women aged 15 to 49 years, including those who were sterilised or whose husbands were sterilised, did not want anymore children.
Around 13.4% wanted to have another child within two years, and 16.2% wanted to delay their next birth for two years or more. However, less than one percent wanted another child but were undecided about the timing, and 10.0% were undecided about having more children.
Among married women aged 15 to 49 with two children, more are deciding that their families are already complete. In 2025, 63.3% either did not want any more children or were sterilised, up from 62.5% in 2022 and 60.1% in 2017.
The pattern is different for women with three children. In this group, the share who wanted no more children has edged down over time—from 81.0% in 2017 to 79.3% in 2022 and 78.4% in 2025.
For women with four or five children, there has been little change in recent years in the share who say they want to stop childbearing.
The desire to stop having children generally increased with the number of living children, from 6.4% of women with no children to 89.5 % among women with six or more children who wanted no more children or were sterilised.
There are small differences between urban and rural areas. In 2025, 57.5% of women in urban areas wanted to limit childbearing, compared with 57.1% in rural areas.
Regional patterns vary more sharply, with the Cordillera Administrative Region indicating the highest share of women who did not want more children, at 63.7%. At the opposite side of the spectrum, BARMM reported the lowest level of desire to stop childbearing, at 29.7%.
By educational attainment, the desire to limit childbearing was lowest among women who completed some senior high school (23.1%) and highest among those with some elementary education (68.1%).
By wealth quintile, the percentage of women intending to limit childbearing was lowest in the richest quintile (55.4%) and highest in the second quintile (59.4%).
Further details on the survey can be found here.
Methodology
The 2025 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) is the 13th in a series of national DHS conducted since 1968 and the first to be implemented as a midterm survey, which is carried out every three years in the Philippines, with the aim to assist policymakers and program managers in designing and evaluating programmes and strategies that aim to improve the health and development of Filipinos.
The 2025 edition provides indicators aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Philippine Development Plan for 2023 to 2028, covering areas such as fertility, family planning, maternal care, child health and development, and domestic violence.
A total of 41,602 housing units (HUs) were selected, and 36,309 HUs were found to be occupied for the 2025 NDHS. Among the households in the occupied HUs, 36,128 households were successfully interviewed, yielding a household response rate of 99.5 percent.
In the interviewed households, 30,223 women aged 15 to 49 years were identified as eligible for individual interviews. Completed interviews were obtained from 29,694 women, resulting in an individual response rate of 98.2 percent.
Lead image and infographics / Philippine Statistics Authority
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