Singapore’s population hits 5.47 million, grows its slowest in 10 years

Singapore’s population grew by 1.3 percent to 5.47 million at the end of June this year, the slowest yearly pace in a decade.

This was due mainly to the “concrete steps” taken to slow the growth of the foreign workforce in the country, according to the annual “Population In Brief” report released by the government on Thursday.

The annual growth in Singapore’s non-resident population, which is made up primarily of foreign workers, fell to 2.9 per cent from 4 per cent the year before.

Singapore’s citizen population rose to 3.34 million from 3.31 million at the same growth rate as that of the previous year.

In the report, the government said it plans to continue taking in between 15,000 and 25,000 new citizens each year to keep the citizen population from shrinking, and it will grant about 30,000 Permanent Residence statuses each year.

Meanwhile, fewer babies were born to Singapore’s residents after a spike experienced in 2013’s Dragon Year. The resident fertility rate dipped to 1.19 last year from 1.29 the year before across all ethnic groups, way below the replacement rate of 2.1 per cent.

The total number of marriages involving at least one citizen also fell to 21,842 from 23,192 marriages the year before.

The report also noted that, as Singapore’s population continues to age, the old-age support ratio, which is the number of working age citizens aged 20-64 supporting one older citizen, has decreased even further. Last year, the ratio stood at 5.2, down from 7.6 a decade before.

Singapore citizens aged 65 and above now form 12.4 per cent of the citizen population this year, up from 11.7 per cent last year.

The report was produced by the National Population and Talent Division, the Singapore Department of Statistics, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority.