In 1998, the Philippines' population stood at 77,725,860. These numbers are spread unevenly throughout the Philippines with a large portion of the country being uninhabited. Roughly 40 percent of the nation was urban during the late 1980s. In 1990, Manila's entire population (greater) was 7,948,398 with 1,601,234 in Manila proper. As of 1998, the population of Metro Manila was approximately 10 million.

A person of Spanish descent born in the Philippines, is where the term "Filipino" originated. It was comparable to the "Creole" of the Spanish and French colonies in America. The meaning of the term "Filipino" changed after the 18th century to apply to the Christianized Malays who constitute the bulk of the Philippine population.

Inhabiting the Philippines since the collapse of land bridges to the Asian mainland and Borneo, are a pygmy people, the aboriginal Aetas. Migration of people of Malay and Polynesian descent has come in waves with the present Filipinos, mainly descendants of Malay invaders, divided according to language and religion.

The Visayans are one of the most important groups, numerically, who they live in the central portion of the archipelago. The other numerically important group, the Tagalogs, live in central Luzon.

The chief non-Malay groups are comprised of people of Spanish and Chinese descent.

Tribes of traditional warrior societies, the Moros were converted to Islam by Arab missionaries in the 15th century. They live mainly in the southern portion of the archipelago.

A small, but economically and politically important minority are a people of mixed Filipino and Spanish or American ancestry, the Mestizos.

There is also a small number (about 1.5%) of Chinese who reside in the Philippines and they are also quite involved in business.