SEOUL, South Korea (The Adobo Chronicles®) – A 2014 study commissioned by the national legislature concluded that South Koreans could face natural extinction by the year 2750, if the birthrate were maintained at 1.19 children per woman.

Not only is the South Korean population aging (like in Japan and the US), but birthrates are also falling and women are increasingly less inclined to get married.

In 2013, the country’s birth rate plummeted to the lowest level on record: Only 8.6 babies per 1,000 South Koreans were born, and the total number of births fell by 9.9% to the second-lowest number on record.

Furthermore, a government survey of respondents aged 9 to 24 showed that only 45.6% of women “said marriage was something they should do in life,” considerably lower than the 62.9% of men.

Overall, the average South Korean woman is expected to give birth to 1.187 babies in her lifetime — the fifth lowest fertility in the world.

In contrast, neighboring country Philippines, with a current population of 100 Million (twice that of South Korea),  has a birthrate of 24.4 babies per 1,000 Filipinos.

Unless the Philippine government comes up with a solid plan to control population growth, there will not be enough land space to accommodate all Filipinos by the year 2750.

But controlling population is almost out of the question in this predominantly Catholic country, where church officials even encourage Filipinos to make more babies so that the Philippines will have enough workers in call centers as more foreign investors increasingly outsource their manpower requirements.

Urban areas like Metro Manila will be packed like sardines and the population will have to disperse to the rural areas.

Still, that would not be enough to house all Filipinos.

The only option is to build house boats and a good percentage of Filipinos will be living on water — which is plenty in this nation of 7,100 islands.

This dire prediction could only emphasize the need for the Philippines to aggressively defend its claim over islands and waters in the South China Sea — a hotbed of territorial conflict between China and the Philippines, along with other Southeast Asian nations.