1. POPULATION
POLICY IN
SINGAPORE

4. Full name: Republic of Singapore
Population: 4.8 million (UN, 2010)
Capital: Singapore
• Area: 660 sq km (255 sq miles)
• Major languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil
• Religions: Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity,
Hinduism
• Life expectancy: 79 years (men), 84 years (women) (UN)

5. POPULATION POLICY IN SINGAPORE – CASE STUDY
The rapid population growth throughout the 1950s created
several problems:
1. Widespread unemployment
2. Shortage of housing
3. Insufficient educational and healthcare services for the
people
4. Increasing pressure on the limited resources of the country

7. Measures To Encourage Small Families:
1. The Singapore government launched the National Family
Planning Programme in 1966.
Responsible for:
• Initiating and implementing family planning policy through
public education programmes using television, radio,
newspapers and pamphlets.
• Communicating that small families were desirable
• Providing subsidized family planning services through its
Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinics

8. The SFPPB’s slogan was
“Girl or Boy – Two is Enough”

9. • Legalising abortion and
Sterilisation in 1970.
• Women who had given
birth were advised to go to
MCH clinics or their family
doctors for Family Planning
services.
• They were able to gain
advice and consultation on
contraception and
purchase contraceptives at
reduced prices.

10. 3. Incentives such as tax
relief, priority housing and
paid maternity leave were
further implemented to
encourage smaller family
sizes.
4. Some disincentives
include zero maternity
leave and allowance for
women having more than
two children

11. • The Small Families
Improvement Scheme (SFIS)
was established to provide:
financial incentives to low
income couples who have
small families. When the
couples were successfully
being accepted into the
programme, they had to
practice a reliable family
planning method and the
clinical staff would help
monitor them to ensure the
effectiveness of the family
planning method.

12. Why the Family Planning Programme implemented by the
SFPPB was extremely successful?
1. Singapore was well-
educated, highly urbanized
society
2. Increasing numbers of
women were entering the
workforce or continuing
with higher education
3. The trend of later
marriages was becoming
more accepted

13. 4. Longer gap between children
5. A downward trend of total
fertility rate from 2.1 babies
per
6. woman in 1975 to 1.4 babies
per woman in 1986
7. Fertility rate refers to the
number of live births per
thousand women of child-
bearing age per year

14. Problems Which Resulted:
This campaign was so
successful that ironically,
problems began to surface:
1. With the birth rates falling
and death rates remaining
low, Singapore’s population
began to age. More elderly
people became dependent
on the proportion of
population that was
working

16. 2. The government recognized the importance of
having young citizens to replace the ageing
workforce because the economy would not be as
competitive as compared to other countries.
3. Continued economic expansion was considered
difficult without some increase in the local labour
supply.
4. There was also concern that a reduction in the
number of young male adults enlist in the armed
forces would have serious consequences for national
security.

17. A New Policy in 1987
The government discovered that it was the more
educated couples who were not having more
children. Those who had a lower level of education
were reproducing at a faster rate. Thus, in line with
the government’s policy of cultivating a more
educated and higher-skilled workforce, the
government introduced a campaign with slogan
“Have Three or More If You Can Afford It.”

19. Measures To Encourage Bigger Families
People were
encourage to marry
at a younger age to
increase the
opportunity to have
more children during
their high fertility
years.

20. Several incentives were
offered to encourage
more birth: -
a) Couples who were
earning higher incomes
were offered the
greatest amount of tax
relief and rebates with
the aim of encouraging
the well-educated
people to have more
children

21. b) If mothers gave birth to their second child before they
were 28 years of age, a tax rebate of $20 000 was given
c) For children attending government-approved childcare
centres, parents were given a $100 subsidy per month
regardless of their income.
d) Third child families were given priority over small families
for school registration.
e) The government also approved that ‘Medisave’ could be
used for the birth of the third child, whether the child was
delivered in a government or private hospital.

22. • The initial response to the
new policy was positive.
• Before the policy was
implemented, total
fertility rate was 1.4
babies per woman in
1986,
• it rose slightly to 1.96 per
woman.
• The rate dropped to 1.9
babies per woman in
1990 and continued to
fall to 1.6 babies per
woman in 1999.

23. The decline in replacement level in Singapore is due
to:
1. Increasing numbers of Singaporeans not getting
married. Out of 100 males aged between 25 to 29
years old, 66 were single in 1988. In 1998, this
figure increased to 70. Out of 100 females aged
between 25 to 29 years old, 41 were single in 1988.
In 1998, this figure increased to 44 out of 100.
2. Women are having children at an older age because
couples are marrying later. This results in families
having fewer children

24. Additional incentives
In 2001, Government offered
the Children Development Co-
Savings Scheme (or Baby Bonus
scheme). The aim of the Baby
Bonus Scheme is to remove the
financial obstacles associated
with having more children.
When a family has more
children, a Children
Development Account will be
set up by the government for
the second child of the family.

25. • The government will contribute $500
to the account annually and match,
up to another $1000, for every dollar
deposited into the account by the
family.
• For the third child, the government
will contribute $1000 to the account
annually and match, up to another
$2000 in contributions by the family.
• This incentive will be valid until the
children are six years of age. The
money can be utilized for the
education and development of any
child in the family.

26. Additional incentives (Cont.1)
2. The government will also offer The Third Child Paid
maternity Leave Scheme. The government will pay
up to a maximum of $20 000, the wage cost of a
mother granted eight weeks of maternity leave for
her third child.
3. More family-friendly work arrangements in the civil
service and making more childcare centres available
and affordable.
The government will monitor birth rates until 2006
to review the effectiveness of these policies.