The latest population figures report (Read the publication here: Population in Brief 2017) showed that the population has grown slightly to 5.64 million.
Observations:
- The resident total fertility rate fell from 1.2 in 2016 to 1.16 in 2017. The drop is attributed to larger cohort of Singaporean females entering peak childbearing age, but did not have children.
- Number of marriages in 2017 was the highest in 10 years
- Proportion of singles in each age group, for both genders, has also increased since 10 years ago
Read the news report highlighting results from the population report here and here.
Analysis:
In our society, marriage is the prerequisite to childbearing and being accorded the institutional benefits of being recognised as a family unit. It is thus worrying for the population numbers if young people are choosing to remain single, and those getting married are not having children early, reducing the length of healthy childbearing years.
For a population to replace itself without immigration, a fertility rate of 2.1 is recommended. If a population cannot replace itself, the workforce declines and society will face problems such as an ageing population, brain drain (Read: article on Taiwan’s struggle with brain drain), and slower economic growth (Read: commentary on South Korea’s low birth rates). We can observe the impact of a declining birthrate in other developed economies.
An alternative perspective is the concern of overpopulation, where some believe that the future might hold problems like, overcrowdedness, mass migration, and violence over limited resources due to too many people on Earth. Back in the 1960s, there was a concern about overpopulation after a population boom spurred by the end of World War II. However, a model called demographic transition argues that societies go through phases of high and low growth. When industrialised economies foster better life expectancy, there would be a boom, then a slowdown, and finally a steadying of population growth.
Watch this video by Kurzgesagt which explains the concept of demographic transition.
Questions for personal evaluation:
- Why do you think fewer women are giving birth?
- In your opinion, what can governments do to address population growth issues?
- How convincing is the demographic transition theory model?
Useful vocabulary:
- ‘Mull’: think about something deeply and at length
- Curtailment’: the action or fact of reducing or restricting something
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash