Introduction

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the issue of population explosion, particularly in developing countries, was at the forefront of policy debates.² As a result, population control became an integral part of the economic development agenda of multilateral institutions and many countries around the world (Connelly 2008).

The fear of unmanageable population explosion has abated in the 21st century. This fear has been replaced in some countries by the concern that they may experience severe challenges arising from prolonged low fertility rates, which could eventually result in declining population, and subsequent loss of economic dynamism and military strength. Four out of nine people already live in countries in which the fertility rate has dipped below the replacement rate. According to the United Nations, the world's average fertility could fall below the replacement rate by 2025 (The Economist 2007). Central and Eastern Europe (from Germany to Russia); the Northern Mediterranean; and parts of East Asia are already facing serious challenges arising from depopulation.

The East Asian city-state of Singapore has experienced below-replacement fertility rates since 1975. It is ranked as having the third lowest Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 1.08³ in the world in 2008 (CIA 2008). Therefore, Singapore may represent an instructive case-study of policy responses and implications of prolonged low fertility rate.

Singapore is among the most globalized economies in the world, with external demand, technology, investments, and manpower playing a dominant role in its evolution from a lowmiddle income country in the 1960s to a high income country today (Rajan 2003).

Singapore's globalization strategy is creating significant inequalities, and relative poverty. Thus, Singapore's Gini Coefficient (a measure of income inequality) increased from 0.44 in 1990 to 0.48 in 2000, to 0.52 in 2005, with the rising value implying greater inequality. The ratio of disposable income of the highest 20% to that of the lowest 20% has also increased from 11.4 in 1990 to 20.9 in 2000 (Taipei,China's corresponding figures are 5.2 and 5.6) (Chua 2007).

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. An overview of Singapore's demographic trends is provided in Section 2. This is followed by a discussion of the policy responses of the Singapore government to manage prolonged fertility decline in Section 3. The final section provides concluding observations.

Download this Discussion Paper [ PDF 155.4KB| 15 pages ].

Comment(s)

There are [0] comment(s) for this entry. Post a comment.