In the latest annual Population in Brief report released by The Prime Minister’s Office Strategy Group on Thursday (24 September), it stated that the total population of Singapore decreased by 0.3 per cent from June last year to 5.69 million, with a fall in the number of non-resident population.
As of June this year, Singapore’s citizen population increased by 0.6 per cent to 3.52 million while the non-resident population decreased by 2.1 per cent to 1.64 million and the permanent resident population fell slightly by 0.8 per cent to 521,000.
It said that the citizen population “continues to age steadily”, with 16.8 per cent aged 65 and above compared to 16.0 per cent last year.
According to the report, the fall in a number of non-residents was “largely due to a reduction in foreign employment in services”, in which the biggest drop was for work permit holders.
“These trends were largely due to COVID-19 related challenges, brought about by weak demand and travel restrictions,” it noted.
As compared to a 22,000 growth in the previous one-year period, the foreign employment has decreased by 46,000.
Given that more overseas Singaporeans returned home due to COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers of overseas Singaporeans also decreased to 203,500, up from 217,200 in 2019.
The report also showed that there is a drop in marriages in 2019, with the number of marriages fell from 23,632 in 2018 to 22,165 in 2019.
It added that the median age at first marriage for citizen grooms was 30.1 years, unchanged from 2018, while the median age at first marriage for citizen brides increased slightly from 27.9 years in 2014 to 28.4 years.
Meanwhile the number of citizen births also increased slightly from 32,413 in 2018 to 32,844 in 2019, with the resident total fertility rate remained at 1.14 per cent in 2019, unchanged from 2018.
