Ethnic Identity
In the Philippines there are individuals of different languages, ethnic cultures, and ancestries. The majority of present-day Filipinos are descendants from ancient Taiwanese aborigines who migrated into Southeast Asia thousands of years ago.
The Philippine Statistics Department does not account for the racial background or ancestry of an individual. The official population of all types of mestizos (Asian, American, Hispanic, etc.) that reside inside and outside of the Philippines remains unknown. Although a study provided by Stanford University found that 3.6% European introgression into the Philippines was evident due to the period of colonization, it only genotyped 28 individuals from the Philippines. Results from such a small sample cannot be used with high confidence to characterize a population of 95 million persons.
Researchers have estimated there are some 3,500,000 to 5,000,000 persons with some Spanish ancestry. Higher estimates are of 17,000,000 to 36,550,197 people of Hispanic descent, but neither study is supported by genetic analysis. As noted, in recent decades, other peoples of European ancestry have settled in the Philippines and some have intermarried with the indigenous peoples.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In The Philippines
Famous quotes containing the words ethnic and/or identity:
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—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
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—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)