Manila's population of 20 million people is rising by approximately a quarter of a million every year. Due to overcrowding a third of the Filipino capital's residents are forced to live on any bit of spare land they can manage, often in makeshift settlements under bridges, beside railway lines and even in cemeteries.
Large families are common in a conservative Catholic county that is pushing the government's already weak social care system to its limit.
See more of Getty Images photographer Paula Bronstein's work on population issues in the Philippines in Tuesday's post: Mothers give birth in an already overpopulated Manila.
Look back at PhotoBlog posts on Filipino housing issues and on the world's seven billion population milestone, reached in 2011.
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