OFW Statistics: 13 Facts & Figures About Overseas Filipino Workers

OFW statistics about Filipinos working and living abroad, their lifestyles, and demographic data continue to change. The desire to work abroad remains high, although the coronavirus pandemic has also forced thousands of overseas Filipino workers to return home.

Here is a summary of statistics based on the Philippine Statistics Authority data on the 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos.

OFW Statistics: Demographics

• Of the total number of OFWs 56% are female and 44% male.
• The largest proportion of OFWs belonged to age group 30 to 34 years comprising 22.6% of all OFWs, followed by those aged 25 to 29 years with 20.7%.
• Female OFWs were generally younger compared to male OFWs as a larger percentage of males (17.9%) than females (14.7%) belong to the 45 and over age category.

Occupation

• Two in every five (39.6%) OFWs belonged to elementary occupations. About 18 percent
  worked as service and sales workers.
• OFWs who worked as plant and machine operators and assemblers comprised 12.2 percent; technicians and associate professionals, 8.7 percent; professionals, 8.5 percent; and craft and related trade workers, 8.1 percent.

Location

• The largest proportion of OFWs was from CALABARZON at 20.7 percent out of the total
  OFWs.
• Those coming from Central Luzon, National Capital Region, and Western Visayas
  comprised 13.3 percent, 9.7 percent, and 9.0 percent, respectively.
• On the other hand, the smallest proportion of OFWs came from MIMAROPA Region at 1.5 percent.

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• One out of five (22.4%) OFWs worked in Saudi Arabia during the period April to September 2019.
• The other popular destinations were United Arab Emirates (13.2%), Hong Kong (7.5%), and Taiwan (6.7%).

Money Remittance

• The total remittance sent by OFWs during the period April to September 2019 was estimated
  at P211.9 billion
• These remittances included cash sent home (P157.9 billion), cash brought home (P46.7 billion), and remittance in kind (P7.3 billion).
• The majority of OFWs sent their remittances through banks (58.0%) while the rest used money transfer (40.7%), agency or local office (0.6%), door-to-door delivery (0.4%), friends or co-workers
  (0.2%), or other means (0.1%).

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Source: Philippine Statistics Authority