Particularly within developing countries, the RCC has been cited as ignoring the struggles of the impoverished and lower class. Like many other Catholic countries, in the Philippines, the RCC is very active in the population policy debate. Admist the 7,100 plus islands compromising the archipelago, a sizable majority, 84%, of all Filipinos are Roman Catholic. As the only Christian Southeast Asian country, the Philippines has one of the regions highest rates of population growth. In 1992, the population in the Philippines stood at 66 million and is
expected to reach 75 million by 2000, a tenfold growth from the beginning of the century. If this rate continues, by the year 2100, there will be three quarters of a billion Filipinos, a rate expected to exceed the population destinies of India, Sri Lanka and West Germany. In response, the RCC in the Philippines has taken a range of responses to population issues, from active involvement to overt aggression against the nation's population board.