The Philippines is a number of islands forming one country over nearly 116,000 square miles (slightly larger than the US state of Arizona).  The population is 101 million, making it the 12th most populous country in the world.  They have a similar life expectancy to Peru of just under 72 years, and only 9% of the population lack clean water, and just 24% lack proper sanitation.

English and Filipino (which is based on Tagalog) share the status of official language, and there are 8 other ethnic dialects.  The majority of the country (80.9%) claim to be Roman Catholic, the balance being Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census).  However, in the last decade, the percentage of those claiming to be Muslim has risen dramatically.