President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently signed Proclamation No. 1346, which declares August 2007 as National Census Month.

Citing the significance of an up-to-date and comprehensive population count to national development planning, President Arroyo enjoined all departments and other government agencies to implement and execute the operational plans, directives, and orders for the conduct of the 2007 Census of Population (POPCEN 2007). The census undertaken by the National Statistics Office (NSO) began last August 1.

POPCEN 2007 aims to make a complete count of all residents, both Filipinos and foreigners who have stayed in the country for at least a year. It also hopes to collect basic information about the number of people residing within a house, their age, gender, civil status, education, and other demographic and socio-economic characteristics.

Population data obtained from the census will serve as bases in addressing specific requirements of the national government agencies and local government units (LGUs) especially in targeting beneficiaries of basic social services. The Local Government Code also sets the population census counts as benchmarks for the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and for the creation of new or conversion to a higher level of local government units.

In the last population census conducted in May 2000, the country's population placed at 76.5 million. The NSO shall release the population count obtained from POPCEN 2007 on February 28, 2008.

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