The Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines is a unitary sovereign country consists of a fabulous cluster of tropical islands in Southeast Asia. The nation is known around the world for its stunning beaches, fabulous wildlife, and near-ubiquitous nurses. As of 2015 the Philippines has a population of at least a hundred million people and is the 8th most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country on earth. The Philippines has a total land area of 340 3448 square kilometers. The Philippines is located both on the Pacific Ring of Fire and fairly close to the equator, the country is highly prone to powerful earthquakes and typhoons, on the other hand, the position of the Philippines also grants it abundant natural resources and staggering biodiversity. The flag of the Philippines is made up of two equally sized bands of royal blue and scarlet with a white triangle on the high side containing several stylized stars the flag also has a unique feature as it is flown with the blue band at the top during peacetime and with the red band at the top when the country is at war. After the Second World War in 1946, the Philippines became the very first country in Southeast Asia to get independence. We'll cover some of the amazing facts about the Philippines in this article. So let's start...
1. Over 900 species of orchids grow in the Philippines.
2. The Philippines is the only UN nation in which divorce is generally illegal.
3. The Philippines accounts for roughly 43 percent of the planet's gin consumption.
4. Manila was named after the white flowers that grow on mangrove trees.
5. In 2014 Time magazine ranked Makati, a city in the Manila metropolitan area as the selfie capital of the world.
6. Manila's Chinatown dates back to the 16th century, making it the oldest Chinatown in the world.
7. There are roughly a hundred and seventy individual languages spoken in the Philippines.
8. The Philippines is the world's largest supplier of nurses with about a quarter of all overseas nurses from the country.
9. On the 4th of May 2006, 3738 women in Manila set the world record for the most women simultaneously breastfeeding.
10. The antibiotic r Ephraim Ison, an important antibiotic widely used to treat chest infection was discovered by a Filipino physician named Abelardo Aguilar in 1949.
11. Philippine's highly Catholic society makes it one of only two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia.
12. The University of Santo Tomas in Manila was founded by Dominican monks in 1611, which makes it older than America's Harvard University which was not founded until 1636.
13. In terms of the student population, the University of Santo Tomas is also the world's largest Catholic University in a single campus.
14. Canlaon City located on the Philippine island of Negros is home to the wonder tree of Canlaon, a massive tree that is estimated to be around 1330 years old.
15. Owing to the shortage of tomatoes during the second world war the Philippines has a ketchup alternative made with bananas and it is dyed to match ketchup traditional color.
16. According to the national mapping and resource information authority, the Philippines consists of 7,841 islands out of which only 2,000 are inhabited and nearly 5,000 are still entirely unnamed.
17. The Philippines is one of only a handful of mega bio-diverse countries in the world owing to its fabulously extensive range of flora and fauna. Including numerous endemic species which are organisms found nowhere else on earth. Such species include more than 170 different types of birds and 100 types of mammals.
18. The Philippines continues to struggle with political violence even in the 21st century. In fact, there have been over 1,200 political assassinations in the Philippines since 2001.
19. On the 15th of June 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo volcano caused average global temperatures to drop by half a degree Celsius.
20. The volcano ejected 10 billion metric tons of magma and in addition, roughly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide was ejected into the atmosphere over several months. This cloud of toxic gas spread all over the planet.
21. In the Philippine island province of Camiguin, there are five main towns and more than 10 volcanoes, the largest concentration of volcanoes per square kilometer in the world.
22. The Philippines typically experience five earthquakes of moderate magnitude every year, seven earthquakes of major magnitude every 10 years, and one large magnitude earthquake also every 10 years.
23. 8.2-kilometer long underground river on the island of Palawan in the Philippines was the longest in the world until divers discovered a subterranean stream in Mexico that measures roughly 10 kilometers in length.
24. The Philippine Trench located to the east of the Mindanao Island in the Pacific Ocean is the third deepest spot under the world's oceans after the Mariana Trench and the Tonga trench it stretches down around six and a half miles deep.
25. The rice terrace of the Philippine Cordilleras are UNESCO World Heritage Site and are reportedly around 2,000 years old and the terraces are staggeringly beautiful and are often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world.
26. The national symbol of the Philippines is a Philippine eagle which is the largest Eagle species by length and wing size declared the national bird of the Philippines in 1995. The Philippine eagle is also known as the monkey-eating eagle due to the largely incorrect belief that they eat monkeys. It is also critically endangered and as such killing one is punishable by 12 years in jail.
27. The Philippines has the highest rate of discovery of new animal species on the Planet. In fact, 16 new species of mammals have been discovered in the last 10 years alone.
28. The Philippines is home to the endemic Philippine Mouse deer the world's smallest hoofed animal known locally as the Pilandok, which stands about 40 centimeters or 16 inches tall at shoulder level.
29. The Philippines and its neighbor Indonesia are the only places on earth other than the Americas where skunks can be found.
30. Gollum suluEnsis a species of shark discovered off Palawan island in the western Philippines gets his name from Gollum the wretched emaciated character from the Legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien.
31. Apparently, the offspring of a zebra and a donkey variously known as a zonkey Zabrocki or z drunk was first bred in Manila Zoo all the way back in 1962.
32. According to the latest census, at least 52 million people in the Philippines speak English, making it the fifth largest English-speaking nation behind the U.S., India, Pakistan, and the UK.
33. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila located in the northern region of Luzon the city was founded on the 24th of June 1571 by a Spanish conquistador called Miguel lópez de Legazpi and has a fairly small population of about 1 million seven hundred eighty thousand people.
34. According to the UN, Manila is the most densely populated city in the world with over 46,000 people per square mile.
35. The first Filipino saint came from Manila named Lorenzo Ruiz, he was executed in Japan for refusing to renounce his Christianity despite having been brutally tortured as such Ruiz is also the patron saint of the Philippines.
36. When viewed from above Manila City Hall looks like a coffin, it was designed to look like a shield of the Knights Templar emblazoned with a cross to symbolize the protection of the country under the Roman Catholic Church.
37. Tomas Claudio Street in Manila was named after the first Filipino victim of the first world war. Claudia moved to the United States as a young man in search of a better life before deciding to enlist in the US Army in 1917. The following year he died a month after being wounded whilst fighting in Europe. The Philippine government later decided to name one of the streets of Manila in his honor.
38. Marikina City in Luzon is often called the Shoe capital of the Philippines owing to its large shoe industry. The area doubled down on this reputation in 2002 with the construction of the world's largest pair of shoes with over 5 meters long almost 2.5 meters wide and 2 meters high.
39. It has been estimated that Filipinos sent about 400 million text messages every day adding up to roughly one hundred and forty-two billion texts per year that's more than the total number of daily text messages sent in the US and Europe combined as such the Philippines is now known as the text messaging capital of the world.
40. The people of the Philippines repurposed thousands of army jeeps the US military left behind after the Second World War and turned them into public transportation vehicles called jeepneys.
41. Filipinos are known to observe an extremely long Christmas season beginning with the playing of carols in attending for most people on the 6th of January with the Feast of the free Kings around four months. In total, this makes it the longest Christmas season in the world
42. Basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines. The Philippines Basketball Association is the first and oldest league in Asia and the second oldest in the world after the National Basketball Association in the United States.
43. Though cockfighting has long been abolished in many nations it is still very popular in the Philippines, in fact, the country is home to a huge cockfighting competition known as the world slasher cub staged in Manila's Araneta Coliseum.
44. Spider fighting in the Philippines is extremely popular with young people who will even store multiple spiders in matchbox stables.
45. Filipinos love shopping malls or shopping centers and the Philippines is home to three of the ten largest shopping malls in the world.
46. The Philippines is the world's biggest exporter of coconuts and tropical fruits such as Papaya and Mangosteen.
47. The modern yo-yo was invented by a Filipino American by the name of Pedro Flores, in fact, the word yo-yo comes from yo-yo which means come back in Ilocano the third most widely spoken native language in the Philippines.
48. During his visit to the Philippines in 2015 the concluding Mass given by Pope Francis in Manila's Luneta Park on the 18th of January was attended by an estimated six million Filipinos this became at the largest ever people gathering in history surpassing a record set by Pope John Paul the second during World Youth Day in 1995 which was also held in Luneta Park
49. Contestants from the Philippines have won numerous major international beauty pageant titles 3 for Miss Universe 6 miss international 1 for Miss World and 5 for miss earth titles making it the second most successful nation behind the apparent stunners from Venezuela
50. Jaz cola, a brand of soft drink produced by Pepsi rivals Coca Cola exclusively for the Philippine market the drink is available only in the Philippines.
51. On the 5th of December 1965, a one Megaton nuclear bomb fell into the Philippine Sea close to Japan when the attack jets which it was attached to accidentally fell off the carrier the pilot's aircraft and the nuclear bomb were never recovered and it wasn't until 1989 that the Pentagon revealed that this had even happened.
52. In 1844 the Philippines moved from one side of the International Dateline to the other which had the curious effect of completely eliminating the 31st of December 1844 from the history of the Philippines.
53. In August of 2016, it was discovered that the Filipino fishermen had found the world's largest natural pearl and had kept it under his bed for ten years entirely unaware of its worth now known as the pearl of Puerto. The pearl weighs in at a staggering 34 kilograms.
Wow, thank God. Amazing facts about the Philippines.
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