The Philippines, officially the Republic of
the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated
in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that
are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from
north to south: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao.
The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city
is Quezon City, both within the single urban area of Metro Manila.[15]
Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the
east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares
maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau
to the east, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia and Brunei to the
southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest.
The Philippines' position as an island country on the Pacific Ring of
Fire and close to the equator makes the country prone to earthquakes and
typhoons. The country has a variety of natural resources and a globally
significant level of biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of around
300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) with a population of around 109 million
people.[7] As of 2020, it is the 8th-most populated country in Asia and
the 12th-most populated country in the world. Multiple ethnicities and
cultures are found throughout the islands. Negritos, some of the
archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of
Austronesian peoples.
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