More people in Singapore are staying single, becoming older and smarter, according to the latest population survey findings released today.
People in their late 20s and early 30s are staying single while more Singaporeans are pursuing post-secondary education. The median age among locals has also gone up amid steady population growth that’s partly driven by the rising number of foreigners living in the state.
The population census was the result of interviews with about 150,000 households in the past year on their personal backgrounds, such as marital status and educational attainment, to see whether Singaporeans have changed in any way since 2010.
Staying single, getting smarter
Many of those aged 25-34 remained single, the census findings showed. The portion of single men aged 25-29 rose to 81.6 percent while the portion of single women in the same age group rose to 69 percent. The report noted that single men mostly came from poorer education backgrounds while women with better qualifications were more likely to be single. Nearly 20 percent of intellectual women in their 40s reported being single last year, compared to women who did not graduate from secondary school.
Better educated women were also choosing to have fewer children, the census report said, stating that female degree-holders in their 40s had an average birth rate of 1.66, less than the 2 percent population recovery rate.
Since 2010, more Singaporeans have pursued higher education, with 60 percent of locals attaining post-secondary qualifications in 2020. Business administration was the most popular field of study for undergraduates, followed by engineering sciences, humanities and social sciences, and IT, the survey said.
At home, more people were choosing to speak English rather than their native language. The census report said that nearly half of respondents were speaking more English than Chinese, Malay, or Tamil.
Losing my religion?
Many youths aged 15 and up in Singapore were also disassociating themselves from religion. The survey report said that 20 percent of those polled did not have a religious affiliation as compared to 17 percent who said the same thing in 2010.
Peculiarly, the report also noted that younger Muslims were associating themselves with Islam as compared to older ones.
“In 2020, 21.4 percent of residents aged 15-24 years were Muslims, compared to 13.2 percent of residents aged 55 years and over,” the report stated.
Singapore is considered a multi-religious city made up of mostly Buddhists (31 percent), Christians (18.9 percent), Muslims (15.6 percent), Taoists (8.8 percent), and Hindus (5 percent).
A growing (and aging) population
Singapore’s population continues to grow older, with the median age recorded at 41.5 in 2020 as compared to 37.4 in 2010. The portion of senior citizens aged 65 and above also grew from 9 percent to 15.2 percent.
According to the decennial survey, the citizen population rose 8 percent to 3.52 million while permanent residents dipped 3.7 percent to 0.52 million. The number of foreigners, also known as the “non-resident” population, went up by a quarter to 1.64 million. All in all, about 5.7 million people called Singapore home last year.
There was also a slight decrease in the number of residents originally born in Singapore. The survey said that 10 percent of those they interviewed last year said they were born in Malaysia, followed by mainland China (4.2 percent), India (2.8 percent), and Indonesia (1.4 percent).
Ethnic Chinese individuals continue to make up the majority of the Singapore population at 74.3 percent, followed by those who identify as Malay (13.5 percent) and Indian (9 percent). The survey categorizes those who do not fall under the racial categories as “others,” who make up 3.2 percent of the population.
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