The growing population of the Philippines hinders the country from
achieving economic development due to the limited resources
available. The 2010 Census on Population and Housing (CPH)
reports that the Philippine population has struck 92.1 million, a
15.8-million increase from the 76.3 million population size reported
in 2000. Moreover, the relationship between population and
family size, on the one hand, and poverty incidence on the other,
has been established through econometric models showing the
causality between presence of young dependents in a household
and household welfare. Using the Family Income and Expenditure
Survey (FIES) 2009 data, this study examines the factors affecting
the number of young dependents in a household, and focuses in
particular on the household’s level of contraceptive expenditure.
The negative binomial regression model is used to quantify the
effect of the factors and predict the average number of young
dependents in a household. This model allows for overdispersion
in the data. Results show that for every P10,000 increase in total
expenditure on contraceptives for a period of six months, the
mean number of young dependents decreases by 3.7%. Other
demographic variables such as education of household head and
income of the household are controlled for in the study.