Singapore

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Singapores Population

• Good Governance

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Population Pyramid
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Population Pyramid
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Population Pyramid
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Singapores Population Policy

• From rapid-growth baby-boom figures during the
  1950s and the 1960s to the
• 1966 to 1981 three five-year plans to reduce
  population growth to the
• Current struggle to bring up declining population
  levels and replacement rates and finding ways to
  
• Handle current ageing population problems

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Singapores Population Policy

• Late 1950s to the 1960s
• Post-war baby boom due to peace and stability in
  Singapore following WW2 as businesses were
  re-started and employment was abundant
• Confidence in the future and the belief that more
  children meant better financial security in old
  age
• With an average of 6 to 7 children or more per
  family, the population grew rapidly from 1.02m to
  1.64m in a decade

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Singapores Population Policy

• Late 1950s to the 1960s
• In 1965, Singapore became independent and was
  poised to face many challenges
• British military pull-out scheduled for 1971
• No raw materials
• Need to build up industry
• Need to build up schools
• Need to build up healthcare system
• Need to build up infrastructure
• Need to house a growing population

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What a BIG Headache!!!
Solution?
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Singapores Population Policy

• 1966 to 1981 (Family Planning Phase)
• In 1966, setting up of the SFPPB (Singapore
  Family Planning and Population Board) to plan
  population policies with the aim to control
  population growth
• Aimed for 3 Five Year Plans
• 1966 Emphasize the need for smaller families
• 1971 Encouraged married couples to stop at 2
  
• children
• 1976 Maintain the replacement level at 2.1
  children

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1966 to 1981 (Family Planning Phase)
• In addition, various measures to assist the 5
  year plans were put in place
• Encouraging contraception and making it available
  for purchase
• Legalised abortion
• Campaigns

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1966 to 1981 (Family Planning Phase)
• In addition, various measures to assist the 5
  year plans were put in place
• No paid maternity leave to be given to the 3rd
  and subsequent children
• No priority to be given to large families in the
  allocating of government (HDB) flats
• No income tax relief to be given for the 4th and
  subsequent children
• Delivery charges in hospitals to be increased
  with each additional child

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1966 to 1981 (Family Planning Phase)
• Was extremely successful
• 1980 Fertility rate was 1.82 per woman
• Family planning policy to reduce birth rate had
  worked
• Was not that successful
• Fertility rate was below replacement level
• Other factors at play for a decrease in births
• Increasing living costs
• Change of mindsets towards career, marriage and
  large families

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Singapores Population Policy

• To what extent were Singapores Family Planning
  policies a success? Explain your answer. 12m
• Step 1 Explain that they were successful
• 1980 Fertility rate was 1.82 per woman
• Family planning policy to reduce birth rate had
  worked
• Step 2 Explain that they were not that
  successful
• Fertility rate was below replacement level
• Other factors at play for a decrease in births
• Increasing living costs
• Change of mindsets towards career, marriage and
  large families
• Step 3 Weighing

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• Why was there a need to promote population growth
  from the 1980s?
• Declining Birth Rate from the 1980s
• Unattractive to MNCs (Multi-National Companies)
• Ageing Population
• Defence Needs

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• Why was there a need to promote population growth
  from the 1980s?
• Declining Birth Rate from the 1980s
• Fertility rate was at 1.82 (below replacement
  rate)
• Rising cost of living
• Changing Attitudes
• Higher educational prospects for women resulted
  in them marrying later and focusing on their
  careers
• Young couples want time together and decide on
  having children later
• Changing attitudes towards marriage and large
  families
• Dragon Year versus unpopular years
• Economic uncertainties

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• Why was there a need to promote population growth
  from the 1980s?
• Unattractive to MNCs
• Not enough talented people to work in MNCs and
  sustain their development in Singapore
• More expensive to recruit Singaporeans because of
  short supply and therefore MNCs may move to
  cheaper hiring destinations like India and China
  where the labour market is bigger
• Singaporeans would also become a less attractive
  consumer market

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• Why was there a need to promote population growth
  from the 1980s?
• Ageing Population
• Fewer births mean fewer young people in future
  population figures to counter the large amount of
  older people from the baby boom period
• More resources would be needed to take care of
  the ageing population and less resources would be
  available for other sectors

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• Why was there a need to promote population growth
  from the 1980s?
• Defence
• With fewer young people, there would be less men
  to serve the nation
• Singapore would be weakened in terms of defence
  capability
• Move towards Army 3G to counter a drop in human
  resources

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Graduate Mothers Scheme
• Three or More if You Can Afford It
• Other Pro-Family Measures
• Attracting Foreign Talent

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Graduate Mothers Scheme
• Research undertaken showed that the children of
  university graduates tended to perform better in
  schools
• As a result, PM Lee (LKY) felt that female
  graduates should have more children so that the
  new generation workforce would be better educated
  

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Graduate Mothers Scheme
• In 1984, the GMS was introduced to encourage
  marriages among graduates and to encourage them
  to have more children
• GMS sparked off a debate and unhappiness because
  non-graduates were unhappy as they were neglected
  under the policy
• The GMS was scrapped in 1985

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Three or More if You Can Afford It
• Amendment of the 1987 population policy and aimed
  to bring back the replacement level of 2.1
  children
• Instead of discouraging large families, parents
  were encouraged to have three or more children if
  they could afford it

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Three or More if You Can Afford It
• Due to the 1985 recession and the retrenchment of
  workers by MNCs, the government also wanted
  couples to only have children if they could
  afford it and not contribute to social problems
  if they were to have another child and not be
  able to cope financially

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Three or More if You Can Afford It
• The government also introduced measures like
  allowing the use of Medisave to pay for the
  deliveries of the first 3 children
• LIMITED SUCCESS
• Fertility rate rose from 1.48 to 1.96 in 1988
• From 1988 fell from 1.96 to 1.24 in 2004

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Three or More if You Can Afford It
• Publicity campaigns also failed to inspire
  couples to have more than one child
• Later marriages
• Lowest birth rate

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Other Pro-Family Measures
• To help with the high cost of raising children
  and the lack of suitable childcare facilities
• Equalised medical benefits Mothers could now
  make claims for their children
• 5-day work week To allow for a better work-life
  balance

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Other Pro-Family Measures
• To help with the high cost of raising children
  and the lack of suitable childcare facilities
• Grandparent Caregiver Relief Tax relief for
  grandparents who took care of children
• Extended paid maternity leave (from 8 weeks to
  12 weeks)

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Singapores Population Policy

• 1980s and beyond (Declining Birth Rate)
• How did the government promote population growth
  after the 1980s?
• Attracting Foreign Talent
• Enhance Singapores competitiveness
• Relaxed immigration policy from 1989 making it
  easier to obtain Singapore citizenship
• Subsidised housing
• Attractive education packages for children

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Singapores Population Policy

• Ageing Population
• Singapores population will age quickly over the
  next 30 years because
• Post-war baby boomers will hit 65 in 2030
• Declining birth rate from the 1980s proportion
  of young working adults is shrinking and
  proportion of elderly is increasing
• Increased standard of living and better
  healthcare Singaporeans live longer

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I dont want to be BORN Go Away!
Ahpeks Rock!
Baby BOOM!
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Singapores Population Policy

• Ageing Population
• An ageing population will affect Singapore in the
  following ways
• Greater demand for healthcare and social services
• Smaller defence forces
• Strain on the working population
• Less competitive against other developing
  countries

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Senior Citizens as Assets to Society
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Individual
• Family
• Community
• Government

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Senior Citizens as Assets to Society
• Valuable knowledge, skills, work experience and
  talent
• They can still contribute to public and private
  organisations and family life

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Sharing of responsibility to take care of senior
  citizens and cutting down on governments burden

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Individual
• Healthy lifestyle (to reduce medical expenditure)
• Financial planning for retirement

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Family Support
• Emotional, Social and Financial support
• Strengthen family bonds
• Annual Senior Citizens Week Encourage the
  elderly to stay active, promote a positive
  attitude towards ageing

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Family Support
• Grandparents Day to bring families together and
  show appreciation for the elderly

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Community Help
• Government gives subsidies to voluntary welfare
  organisations to run community-based services for
  the elderly free health checks, befriender
  services, recreational activities

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Singapores Population Policy

• Measures taken to deal with an Ageing Population
• Many Helping Hands Approach
• Government Support
• Laws and measures to protect the rights and
  interests of the elderly
• Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents
• Tax Relief
• CPF
• Public Housing Schemes

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Potential Essay Question

• To what extent is the government responsible for
  preparing the country for an ageing population?
  Explain your answer. 12m
• L3 Explain what the government does to prepare
  the country for an ageing population
• L4 Explain what others do to prepare the
  country for an ageing population (Individual,
  Family, Community)
• L5 Weigh extent to which the government
  prepares the country for an ageing population
  versus what others do