How much do OFWs remit to the Philippines each year?

Around $37 billion in personal remittances per year, equivalent to roughly 8–10% of Philippine GDP. The United States is the single largest source country.

OFW remittance flow

The money that holds a nation up.

Twelve source countries, one destination. Each arc is a monthly river of dollars flowing home to the Philippines.

Annual total

$37.4B

Share of GDP

9.3%

OFWs abroad

3.04M

₱ / OFW / month

₱57,400

USD / PHP exchange rate₱56.0

$1 buys ₱56.00 at home. A stronger peso (lower ₱) means each remitted dollar buys less rice, tuition, and medicine.

What ~10% of GDP looks like9.3%

OFW

the rest of the ~$404B economy

Remittances dwarf tourism, BPO, and farm exports — roughly one peso in every ten the country earns.

Source countries · click to trace

How to read it

Each arc on the map is a source country sending money home; the thicker and brighter the line, the larger the annual flow. Pulses ride each arc toward the Philippine hub at the center.

Drag the exchange-rate slider to convert the same dollar flows into pesos. Click a country in the list to spotlight its arc.

Why this matters

Filipino overseas workers remit ~$37B annually — about 8–10% of GDP. That's bigger than tourism, BPO, and agriculture exports combined.

It cushions the peso during crises. It pays for tuition, medical bills, and houses across the islands. Millions of Filipinos work abroad to send this home — the United States is the single largest source.

The personal cost

Behind each $37B are real human ledger entries: parents missing first steps, kids raised by grandparents, marriages strained by distance, OFWs dying in unprotected jobs in Saudi, Kuwait, Hong Kong.

The "bagong bayani" (new heroes) framing is true and also painful — a country that can't employ its own at home, exporting labor as policy.

Citations

BSP (2024) — monthly OFW personal & cash remittance statistics.
PSA SOF 2022 — Survey on Overseas Filipinos.
World Bank (2023) — Migration and Development Brief.
POEA / DMW — overseas deployment statistics by destination & skill.
IMF Article IV (2023) — Philippines remittance dependency analysis.

Built by Joshua Chua · Fable rebuild · vanilla JS + Canvas