Singapore: Singapore's population registered its slowest growth in over a decade, rising by a mere 1.2 per cent to reach 5.54 million in June this year, as it tried to restrict the number of foreign workers arriving in the island-country.
The statistics, released by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) also showed that the number of citizens rose to 3.38 million, through births and immigration.
There were about 20,000 new citizens last year, with 37.5 per cent of them aged 20 and below, 27.9 per cent of them aged between 31 and 40, and the remaining above 40 years old.
The government plans to continue taking in between 15,000 to 25,000 new citizens every year to prevent the citizen population from shrinking, the report said. The number of permanent residents remained stable at 530,000.
The government will also grant permanent resident (PR) status to some 30,000 people every year to keep the PR population stable and to ensure a pool of suitable candidates for citizenship, the NPTD said.
There were more than 33,000 citizen births, which tied with 2012, a Dragon year for the highest number of citizen births in the last 10 years.
The resident total fertility rate (TFR) increased from 1.19 in 2013 to 1.25 in 2014, with the increase seen across all ethnic groups, NPTD said.
The proportion of citizens aged 65 and above increased from 12.4 per cent last year to 13.1 per cent this year, while the median age of Singapore citizens also rose from 40.4 years to 40.7 years.
Currently, there are 4.9 citizens in the working age band of 20 to 64 years for each citizen aged 65 and above, down from 7.2 a decade ago.
The number of non-residents largely comprised of foreigners working here and their families, as well as students rose by 2.1 per cent to 1.63 million, slower than the 2.9 per cent growth the previous year.
This was mainly due to a slowdown in the number of foreign workers arriving in Singapore, the report said.
Measures taken by the government to mitigate the inflow of foreigners saw foreign employment growth excluding maids slowing after reaching a high of 77,000 in 2011-2012.
It fell to 60,000 in 2012-2013, then declined further to 33,000 a year later and to 23,000 in 2014-2015. The NPTD noted in its report that businesses will continue to face a tight labour market.
"The government will support businesses to shift towards skills and capital-intensive ways to grow, so that businesses can continue to grow and succeed here, to create quality jobs for Singaporeans," the Channel News Asia quoted NPTD as saying.
