Birth Rate in Singapore falls to record low

Singapore’s birth rate hit a record low in 2022 with only 35,605 babies born in that year when the country also registered the highest number of deaths annually since 1960, according to media reports on Tuesday. Official figures released by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) showed a 7.9 per cent drop in the number of live births. The drop was from 38,672 in 2021 to 35,605 in 2022. There were 26,891 deaths in 2022, a 10.7 per cent increase compared with the 24,292 recorded in 2021 in the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths. This was the highest number of total yearly deaths since 1960, reported Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao. The report also stated that women are progressively getting older before they start having children, with the median age of first-time mothers rising to 31.9 years in 2022 from 30.6 in 2018. There was minimal change in the median ages of mothers who gave birth to their second and subsequent children during the same period. The number of first-time mothers with university degrees rose to 63.6 per cent, compared with 58 per cent in 2017. Singapore’s declining birth rates and greying population are not new issues, with the Government implementing several measures to try and mitigate their impact. In February, the Government announced plans to support those with marriage and parenthood aspirations after Singapore’s total fertility rate (TFR) hit a historic low of 1.05 last year. This includes a greater priority for first-timer families with children, as well as younger married couples, in their Build-To-Order flat applications, including an additional ballot. Other measures include cash gifts and grants, as well as Government-paid paternity leave being extended to four weeks. In response to queries on the declining TFR, National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser remarked that likely factors include children increasingly not being seen as part of retirement planning, while the cost of raising them has risen in