Americans in the Philippines

American settlement in the Philippines (Filipino: paninirahan sa Pilipinas ng mga Amerikano) began during the Spanish colonial period. The period of American colonialization of the Philippines was 48 years. It began with the cession of the Philippines to the U.S. by Spain in 1898 and lasted until the U.S. recognition of Philippine independence in 1946.

In 2015, the U.S. State Department estimated in 2016 that more than 220,000 U.S. citizens lived in the Philippines and more than 650,000 visited per year. They noted there was a significant mixed population of Amerasians born here since World War II, as well as descendants of Americans from the colonial era.

During the Spanish–American War the United States had invaded the Philippines, then governed by Spain as the Spanish East Indies. Philippine revolutionaries that had been seeking independence renewed their fighting against Spain. The Philippine-American war followed when the U.S. imposed its own control in the Philippines after defeating Spain. The U.S. defeated the revolutionaries and held the Philippines until granting full independence on July 4, 1946.