Singapore’s population grew at its slowest rate in 10 years, inching up 1.3 percent from last year to hit 5.47 million in June 2014, according to new findings released by the National Population and Talent Division.
The muted growth was due to concrete steps taken by the government to slow the rise of foreign workers, said the report.
Currently, there are 3.34 million Singapore citizens, 0.53 million permanent residents (PRs) and 1.60 million non-resident foreigners.
Singapore’s citizen population grew by 0.9 percent, similar to last year, through citizen births and immigration.
Meanwhile, the older population continues to climb, with 12.4 percent of Singaporeans aged 65 and above compared to 11.7 percent last year.
Separately, the growth of the non-resident population slowed to 2.9 percent, down from 4.0 percent in the year before.
Foreign employment growth also moderated to 3.0 percent compared to 5.9 percent last year, driven mainly by the construction sector.
To prevent the citizen population from shrinking, the government plans to take in between 15,000 and 25,000 new citizens each year.
At the same time, about 30,000 PRs will be granted each year to keep the PR population stable at between 0.5 and 0.6 million and to ensure a pool of suitable candidates for citizenship, the report added.
The Population in Brief 2014 report was jointly produced by the National Population and Talent Division, Singapore Department of Statistics, Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration & Checkpoints Authority.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
