SINGAPORE: The Republic's population grew 1.3 per cent between June 2013 and June 2014 - its slowest rate of growth in the last 10 years, according to figures released by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) on Thursday (Sep 25).
In actual figures, Singapore's total population was 5.47 million as of June, up from 5.4 million a year ago, the NPTD said in its annual Population in Brief report.
The citizen population grew 0.9 per cent to 3.34 million, similar to last year's growth rate, while the Permanent Resident (PR) population remained stable at 527,700.
The Government plans to continue taking in between 15,000 and 25,000 new citizens each year to keep the citizen population from shrinking, the NPTD report said. To keep the PR population stable, it will grant about 30,000 PRs each year.
The non-resident population grew at a slower rate of 2.9 per cent, down from 4 per cent in the previous year. As of June, there were 1.6 million non-residents in Singapore, up from 1.55 million a year ago.
Foreign employment growth slowed across all sectors to a 'more sustainable pace' of 3 per cent, compared with 5.9 per cent the previous year, the report said, adding that growth was mainly driven by the construction sector.
Singaporeans are living longer, with the number of citizens aged 65 years old and above rising from 11.7 per cent last year to 12.4 per cent in 2014.
The report also found that there are fewer working citizens to support the growing number of elderly. There are currently 5.2 working citizens for each elderly person, down from 7.6 in 2004.
Fewer Singaporeans got married, with the number of marriages involving at least one citizen decreasing from 23,192 in 2012 to 21,842 in 2013. The median age at first marriage has remained stable for both genders, with men getting married at the median age of 30.1 and women at 27.8.
Fewer babies were born, with the resident total fertility rate dipping from 1.29 in 2012 to 1.19 last year. The decline was seen across all ethnic groups, with Chinese experiencing the largest decline, the report said.
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