China Overseas Chinese Network, June 17th. According to Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao, the growth rate of Singapore’s total population has slowed in the past 10 years. Interviewed experts believe that it can be attributed to the decline in fertility and tightening of immigration policies, and the latter has a greater impact .
The ethnic group ratio in Singapore has remained stable for 10 years. The Chinese population has the largest population. However, English has replaced Chinese and has become the most common language spoken by Singaporeans at home.
The first batch of data from Singapore’s “2020 National Census” shows that between 2010 and 2020, the total population will grow by approximately 1.1% per year.
Experts say that if Singapore reduces or stops accepting immigrants, the population will start to decline, and it is unrealistic to think that the fertility policy can be reversed.
"The question is, what kind of demographic structure and economic model do we want. We can adapt to a smaller total population, but it will have the consequences of rising prices for labor-intensive products and services, falling demand for real estate, and declining economic competitiveness. We all Knowing that this island is small and cannot comfortably accommodate too many people, people are increasingly aware of the fact that for sustainable development, the global population cannot expand indefinitely and should be maintained or reduced to improve sustainability."
Zheng Baolian, a professor of sociology at the Singapore Management University, also agreed that the decline in fertility and the tightening of immigration policies are the two main reasons for the slowdown in population growth.
"Looking forward, this means that we must learn to rely on a small but well-trained workforce. Companies have to accelerate the pace of automation when appropriate and use technology to reduce our dependence on low-skilled labor."
She also pointed out that the question raised by this phenomenon is: "In view of the constraints faced by the Singaporean workforce, are we in a good position to grasp the growth opportunities after the new crown epidemic?"
In an interview with the Prime Minister’s Office and the second minister of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Development, Ying Lanni, who assisted in the management of the National Population and Human Resources Agency, emphasized in an interview on the census that the government focuses on building a solid Singapore core, and then the permanent residents and non-resident populations. Reinforcement.
She mentioned that when the government published its population white paper in 2013, many people were worried about whether population growth would be too fast.
Therefore, the government must ensure that the population growth rate will not make people feel uncomfortable, but also that it can continue to achieve the desired economic results.
At the same time, Singapore’s trend of increasing population aging and declining fertility rates is again confirmed in the census.
Last year, Singaporeans aged 65 and above accounted for 15.2% of the population, which was significantly higher than the 9.0% in 2010.
During the same period, the proportion of residents under the age of 15 also dropped from 17.4% to 14.5%.
The median age of the resident population rose from 37.4 years in 2010 to 41.5 years old last year.
Women also have fewer children.
For example, the number of children born to married female residents aged 40 to 49 dropped from an average of two in 2010 to an average of 1.76 last year.
In addition, Singapore is still a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual society.
The census shows that the ethnic group ratio has remained stable over the past 10 years, with Chinese, Malaysian and Indian descent accounting for 74.3%, 13.5% and 9.0% of the population respectively.
The census also found for the first time that English has replaced Chinese as the most common language spoken by Singaporeans at home, but most people speak a second language at home.