Your parents keep getting asked when you’re getting married. Turns out the whole country’s asking the same question, and the answer, so far, has been “not really, thanks.” In February 2026, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong stood up in Parliament and confirmed what demographers had been quietly bracing for: Singapore’s resident total fertility rate (TFR) fell to 0.87 in 2025 — an all-time low.
If your first reaction is “cool, not my problem, I’m not even thinking about kids yet,” fair. But stick with us, because this number touches your CPF, your job market, your taxes, and honestly, the vibe of the country you’ll be living in for the next 40+ years. This isn’t a lecture about pairing up on Hinge. It’s about what a shrinking, greying Singapore means for everyone currently cramming for finals.
Okay, but what does 0.87 actually mean?
TFR (Total Fertility Rate) is basically the average number of children a woman would have across her lifetime. A country needs a TFR of about 2.1 just to keep its population steady without relying on immigration: every couple replacing themselves, plus a small buffer for people who don’t have kids.
Singapore’s fertility rate hasn’t been near that number in decades. But the recent slide has been steep:
- 2015: 1.24
- 2024: 0.97 (a record low at the time)
- 2025: 0.87 (the new record low)
To make that concrete, Gan painted a stark picture during the debate: for every 100 residents today, there would be just 44 children and 19 grandchildren in the next generation. Singapore recorded around 27,500 resident births in 2025 — the lowest figure in its recorded history.
The breakdown by ethnicity
The fertility rate isn’t uniform across communities. According to 2025 data, resident TFR by ethnicity stood at roughly:
- Malay: 1.53
- Indian: 0.92
- Chinese: 0.70
The data reflects patterns documented in the government’s own Population in Brief 2025 report. If you want to dig into the full breakdown yourself, SingStat’s release has the raw figures.
Why this is actually a “you” problem
It’s easy to file this under “boomer problems” or something your parents’ generation frets. But the maths doesn’t work that way. Here’s where it actually lands on your side of the table:
1. Fewer working-age people supporting more elderly. The proportion of citizens aged 65 and above hit 20.7 percent in 2025 (Singapore is now what’s called a “super-aged” society). Fewer babies today means a smaller working-age cohort in 15-20 years, which means whatever job you land after graduation, you’ll likely be part of a shrinking pool funding healthcare, subsidies, and eldercare for a growing elderly population. That shows up in taxes, CPF contribution rates, and possibly your own caregiving load for family members.
2. Smaller peer cohort. Fewer kids being born now eventually means fewer classmates, smaller cohorts in NS, shifts in school enrolment (some schools have already had to merge or downsize), and a tighter talent pipeline for employers, which cuts both ways for job competition.
3. Immigration as the current stopgap, and why that’s its own talking point. Since Singapore can’t grow its population through births alone, the government has leaned on immigration to soften the blow. The Government expects to grant between 25,000 and 30,000 new citizenships annually over the next 5 years, with new permanent residencies projected to rise to around 40,000 a year. That’s part of why “foreign talent” and PR competition remain such live topics — it’s the direct policy response to the TFR problem you’re reading about right now.
So what’s actually being done about it?
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s government recently announced plans to spend nearly S$7 billion on marriage and parenthood initiatives in the 2026 financial year, covering things like childcare subsidies, parental leave, and housing support.
Every Singapore PM going back to Lee Kuan Yew has tried and failed to meaningfully move the TFR needle, which suggests the fix isn’t a bigger baby bonus — it’s making adult life (career timelines, housing, work-life balance, the mental load of dual-income households) actually workable enough that people in their late 20s and 30s feel like they can start a family, not that they’re sacrificing everything to do it.
That’s arguably where this generation has more leverage than it thinks: the policies being tested now — flexible work arrangements, housing timelines for young couples, parental leave structures — are being shaped in real time, and youth engagement (like the recently launched SG Youth Plan) is explicitly trying to bring young people into that conversation earlier. You’ve probably read about Japan’s low birth rate, and all the issues it’s created.
Why Singapore’s still worth building a life in
None of this is new territory for Singapore, actually. This is a country that’s had to constantly recalculate its survival math — from the 1965 separation, to resource scarcity, to SARS, to COVID — and each time, it’s adapted. A declining birth rate is a serious long-term challenge, not an ending.
The population story isn’t finished being written. If anything, the fact that this generation is inheriting a smaller, more selective Singapore means your voice — in how housing, work, and family policy gets shaped next — carries more weight than you’d think.
