Singapore population growth slowest in 10 years: report

Singapore's population grew at its slowest pace in a decade at 1.3 per cent from June 2013 to June 2014 due to drop in the inflow of foreign workers, according to a new report published today.
Singapore's total population was 5.47 million as of June, up from 5.4 million a year ago, the statistics from the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) said in its annual Population report.
The citizen population grew at 0.9 per cent to 3.34 million, similar to last year's growth rate, while the Permanent Resident (PR) population remained stable at 527,700.
The government plans to continue taking in between 15,000 and 25,000 new citizens each year to keep the citizen population from shrinking, the NPTD report said.

To keep the PR population stable, it would grant about 30,000 PRs each year to foreigners working or settling in Singapore.
The non-resident population grew at a slower rate of 2.9 per cent, down from 4 per cent in the previous year.

As of June, there were 1.6 million non-residents in Singapore, up from 1.55 million a year ago, the report said.
Foreign employment growth also slowed across all sectors to a "more sustainable pace" of 3 per cent, compared with 5.9 per cent the previous year, the report said, adding that growth was mainly driven by the construction sector.

The data showed that Singaporeans were living longer, with the number of citizens aged 65 and above rising from 11.7 per cent last year to 12.4 per cent in 2014.
But there were fewer working citizens to support the growing number of elderlies, the report said.
There were currently 5.2 working citizens for each elderly person, down from 7.6 in 2004.
Fewer Singaporeans got married during the year under review. The number of marriages involving at least one citizen decreased from 23,192 in 2012 to 21,842 in 2013.
The median age at first marriage has remained stable for both genders, with men getting married at the median age of 30.1 and women at 27.8.

Fewer babies were born, with the resident total fertility rate dipping from 1.29 in 2012 to 1.19 last year, according to the data.