The cultural diversity of Philippines is the result of the fact that it is an archipelagic state. It is the world's fifth largest island country and is one of the five original archipelagic states recognized under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is made out of 7,641 islands with a total land area of , and an exclusive economic zone that covers of sea, covering an area from its shores.Exclusive Economic Zones – Sea Around Us Project – Fisheries, Ecosystems & Biodiversity – Data and Visualization. Settlement on the islands by its many ethnic groups and the cultural exchanges that shaped the cultural histories of those groups was enabled and defined by maritime and riverine transport - with travel by oceans and rivers serving as these cultures' main way of relating to each other, and long inland mountain ranges being the major physical hindrance to cultural linkages between various groups.
