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Singapore Population, Vital Statistics, and Migration
Singapore had a population of 2,674,362 in July 1989
and the
low birth and death rates common to developed economies
with high
per capita incomes. In 1987 the crude birth rate (births
in
proportion to the total population) was 17 per 1,000 and
the death
rate was 5 per 1,000 for an annual increase of 12 per
1,000. The
infant mortality rate of 9.1 per 1,000 in 1986 was quite
low by
international standards and contributed to a 1987 life
expectancy
at birth of 71.4 years for males and 76.3 years for
females. As in
most developed countries, the major causes of death were
heart
disease, cancer, and strokes. As of 1986, 74 percent of
married
women of childbearing age practiced contraception, and the
total
fertility rate (a measure of the number of children born
to a woman
over her entire reproductive career) was 1.6, which was
below the
replacement level but comparable to that of many countries
in
Western Europe
(see
fig. 5).
Since the city's founding in 1819, the size and
composition of
Singapore's population has been determined by the
interaction of
migration and natural increase (see
table 2, Appendix).
Throughout
the nineteenth century, migration was the primary factor
in
population growth. Natural increase became more important
after the
1920s, and by the 1980s immigration and emigration were of
minor
significance. In the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries,
Singapore's population was composed largely of immigrant
adult
males, and grew primarily through immigration. By the
1920s, the
proportion of women, the percentage of the population that
was
Singapore-born, and consequently the relative contribution
of
natural increase to the population, all were increasing.
By the
1947 census, 56 percent of the population had been born in
Singapore, and there were 1,217 males for every 1,000
females. The
1980 census showed that 78 percent of the population had
been born
in Singapore and that the sex ratio had reached 1,042
males for
every 1,000 females.
Migration to Singapore dwindled during the Great
Depression of
the 1930s, ceased during the war years of 1941 to 1945,
and resumed
on a minor scale in the decade between 1945 and 1955. Most
nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century immigrants
came from
China, India, or Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Between
1945 and
1965 immigrants came primarily from peninsular Malaya,
which shared
British colonial status with Singapore and so permitted
the free
movement of people between Singapore and the rural areas
and small
cities of the peninsula. After independence in 1965,
Singapore's
government imposed strict controls on immigration,
granting
temporary residence permits only to those whose labor or
skills
were considered essential to the economy. Most such
workers were
expected to return to their homelands when their contracts
expired
or economic downturns made their labor redundant. Illegal
immigrants and Singaporeans who employed them were subject
to fines
or imprisonment. The immigrants of the 1980s fell into two
distinct
categories. The first category, unskilled labor for
factories and
service positions, was composed largely of young unmarried
people
from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and
India.
Regulations prohibited their marrying without prior
official
permission and required women to be tested for pregnancy
every six
months--measures intended to make it difficult for them to
attain
Singaporean residence or citizenship by becoming the
spouse or
parent of a citizen. The second category comprised skilled
workers,
professionals, and managers, often working for
multinational
corporations. They came from Japan, Western Europe, North
America,
and Australia. Predominately middle-aged and often
accompanied by
their families, they were immigrants only in the strict
sense of
the government's population registration and had no
intention of
settling permanently in Singapore.
The 1980 census reported that 9 percent of Singapore's
population were not citizens. The aliens were divided into
permanent residents (3.6 percent of the population) and
nonresidents (5.5 percent). The acquisition of Singapore
citizenship was a complex and often protracted process
that began
with application to the Immigration Department for
permanent
resident status. After residing in Singapore for two to
ten years,
depending on skills and professional qualifications, those
with
permanent resident status could apply to the Registry of
Citizens
for citizenship. In 1987 citizenship was granted to 4,607
applicants and denied to 1,603 applicants. The 1980 census
showed
that 85.5 percent of citizens had been born in Singapore,
7.8
percent in China (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan),
4.7
percent in Malaysia, and 1 percent in the Indian
subcontinent
(including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka).
Singapore's
government, keenly aware of the country's small size and
the need
to survive by selling the skills of its citizens in a
competitive
international marketplace, was determined not to permit
the citystate to be overwhelmed by large numbers of unskilled
rural
migrants. In 1989 Singapore mounted a campaign to attract
skilled
professionals from Hong Kong, offering a Chinese cultural
environment with much lower living costs than Hong Kong's.
At the
same time, however, that the government was attempting to
attract
skilled professionals, Singaporeans themselves were
emigrating.
From July 1987 to June 1988, records show that 2,700
Singaporeans
emigrated to Australia, 1,000 to Canada, 400 to the United
States,
and 97 to New Zealand. A large number of the emigrants
were
university-educated professionals, precisely the category
that
Singapore wished to keep and attract. In 1989 a special
government
committee was reported to be devising policies to
discourage
emigration by professionals and managers.
Data as of December 1989
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