The Philippine archipelago (group of islands surrounded by a large body of water) is located northeast of the island of Borneo and south of Taiwan. It is surrounded by the South China Sea, Luzon Strait, Philippine Sea and Celebes Sea. In size, the Philippine archipelago is slightly larger than Arizona and is made up of 7,107 islands (only about 1,000 islands are inhabited).
The Philippines has a republic form of government with the president and vice president elected by popular vote to a single six-year term. The vice president is elected independently from the president. The capital is Manila which is located in the southern part of the top third of the archipelago. The currency is the Philippine peso.
The July, 2007 estimate of the population was 91,077,287 with a population growth rate of 1.76 percent. The current life expectancy is 70.51 years with women outliving men by almost six years.
Filipino and English are the official languages of the country. There are eight major dialects that are also spoken. The Philippines has a 92.6 percent literacy rate of people over the age of 15. The majority religion is Roman Catholic at 80.9 percent with Muslims at 5 percent.
The United States gained possession of the Philippines in 1898 as a result of the Spanish American War. In 1935, the country became self-governing and was looking forward to independence after a ten year transition. World War II destroyed those plans, but the country finally achieved its independence on July 4, 1946.
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