More couples are saying "I do", but the trend of Singaporeans
not marrying or marrying later continues to persist.
According to latest figures released by the National Population
Secretariat , over 21,000 couples tied the knot last year, a slight
increase of 270 couples over the previous year.
However, the general marriage rates for Singaporean males has
dropped sharply - from 47.9 married males per 1,000 unmarried males
in 1998 to 42.1 in 2008.
Likewise for the females - from 49 to 39.3 married females per
1,000 unmarried females in the same period.
There is also a growing trend of people not marrying or marrying
later.
Over the past decade, the median age at first marriage increased
from 28.3 to 29.7 for males, and from 25.7 to 27.1 years for
females.
At the same time, a higher proportion of citizens aged 30 to 34
were single last year - 41 percent of males and 29 percent of
females, as compared to 33 percent for males and 22 percent for
females in 1998.
As for those who are married, they are conceiving less
babies.
The average number of children born to citizen married females
aged 30 to 39 fell from 1.74 children in 1998 to 1.58 children in
2008.
Overall, Singapore's total fertility rate of 1.28 in 2008
remained well below the replacement rate of 2.1.
At the same time, the proportion of residents aged 65 and above
continued to increase from 6.8 in 1998 to 8.7 last year.
Secretariat Director Quah Ley Hoon on what the findings
indicate.
" Population challenge itself is a long term challenge that the
Singapore government will have to tackle, not just the government
but the whole of Singapore. It is important that even in times of
economic downturn, we will need to continue to encourage marriage
of parenthood, encourage naturalisation and integration of new
immigrants in the country as well as continue to engage our larger
Singaporean family out there who are overseas Singaporeans."
All in all, Singapore's total population stands at 4.84 million
in 2008, an increase of 5.5 percent over the previous year.
The growth is largely due to the increase in the number of
non-residents.
Last year, there were about 80,000 new permanent residents and
21,000 new citizens.
But the secretariat declined to give a breakdown of where these
new residents hail from.
--938Live
