Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate of 1.20 per woman interprets to projecting only a slight increase in the total population. The fertility rate stands as one of the lowest in the world today and the government’s efforts prove there is a need to increase the fertility ratio. In the past, the government has launched highly publicized campaigns to raise awareness of the shortcomings of an aging population, and it has also been compelled to adjust its immigration policy in order to allow people in who will satisfy the country’s labor needs. The population is set to grow over time; however, the growth will not be sufficient to meet the labor demands that Singapore has due to industrialization within the Island. Thus, there is a possibility that in the years to come, part of the population growth will be attributed to immigration into the country.
Singapore Population Growth
Estimates from 2006 indicate that the net migration rate was 9.12 migrants per 1000 of the population. This was because the aging part of the population, although lower than most other developed countries at 9.9%, created a need to increase the task force in the country through means other than natural growth.
With the country’s different cultures bearing less than 1.7 as the fertility rate, the change in the current population is significantly impacted by immigrants over time. Since the early 2000s, the trend in population growth has been more a result of the number of migrants entering the country than from natural population growth.
The annual growth rate in 2012 was 2.5% according to statistic figures released. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has been 1.2 as of 2011 with 1.08 for Chinese, 1.64 for Malay and 1.09 for Indians. The Malay fertility rate was 70% higher than that of the Chinese and Indians. The country’s authorities have tried for years to boost the fertility ratio to 2.1 births per woman.
By the end of June 2012, the population of Singapore stood at 5.31 million. The record low was 1.65 million five decades ago, even though the fertility ratio then was higher than it is now. Today, the population is estimated to be 5.5 million. Immigration into the Island has played a critical role in realizing the current population figure. As the government’s recent campaigns to increase the fertility ratio from 1.20 to 2.1 have been futile, the government has been forced to amend its immigration policies to accommodate the increasing labor demands caused by the Island’s industrialization.
Singapore Population Projections
The drastic changes in population are not expected to continue in the years to come. Current projections believe that the rate of annual growth will peak in 2020 around 1.40%, before plummeting to a negative growth rate by 2050, which is largely due to upcoming legislature that will limit the number of migrants that can enter the country. These predictions believe that the population of Singapore will be roughly 5,935,053 in 2020, 6,352,470 in 2030, 6,563,055 in 2040 and 6,574,759 by 2050.