On July 26, at 12:23 a.m., according to an official announcement by the government, the Philippines officially reached a population of 100 million with the birth of a baby girl named Chonalyn at Manila’s Fabella Hospital. To many in the Philippines, if not other parts of the world, Chonalyn’s birth – along with about 100 other babies almost simultaneously in Filipino hospitals and homes – is not necessarily cause for celebration. The archipelago nation is now the world’s 12th largest country, ranking 35th of 238 countries or principalities in population density. That figure is deceptive, however. Much of the country’s land area of 298,170 sq km is on uninhabitable islands, making it one of the world’s most densely populated. The greater Manila conurbation, a collection of 17 cities, is ranked the 11th most populous in the world, with a density of 700 people per sq km, home to 25.5 million people.