Experts explain S’pore’s declining
birth rate
Experts believe the high cost of living is the main
deterrent to couples having children.
They are only getting married in June, but already the couple
have decided against having any children.
Speaking to The Straits Times (ST), civil servant Jean
Heng, 30, said she chooses her independence and freedom above
having a baby.
She said, “Life in Singapore is very stressful. Work takes up a
huge amount of time and I have no energy to take care of kids. If I
want to have kids, I would want to devote enough resources in terms
of time and money.”
Ms Heng and her teacher-fiance are just one of the many couples
in Singapore who have decided to strike babies off their marriage
checklist, citing common reasons such as financial and time
constraints.
Experts ST spoke to are not surprised by the findings of
the Census
of Population 2010, which saw more childless
married women and more one-child families. They cited the high
cost of living as a main reason for couples shying away from
raising children.
Associate Professor Tan Khye Chong, a statistics lecturer from
Nanyang Technological
University, said both husband and wife have to work to
pay off the property loan. “It’s more difficult to start a
family with both working and some may put off having a family until
they are older.”
Professor Gavin Jones, a demographer at the Sociology department
at the
National University of
Singapore, said the “perceived high financial and
opportunity cost” deters couples.
“Once they have children, it closes off options seen as
desirable; for example, free time, holidays and a career,” he said,
adding that parents are also under pressure to
produce “quality children” to do well in school and get ahead in
life.
“There is pressure to devote a lot of effort to parenting, so it
means giving them things like tuition. It’s a highly
labour-intensive process to raise kids here,” he said.
Experts expect the low numbers to translate into far-reaching
implications for the country, reported ST.
Singapore Management
University’s Assistant Professor of Asian Studies Hoon
Chang Yau said the increase in immigrants needed to make up the
Republic’s workforce will “lead to a more complex society with more
people from around the world settling here”.
“While it can be quite exciting, there will also be anxiety over
the change in the Singapore identity,” he added. Policies would
also need to be tweaked to cope with an already ageing population,
which means people would have to work even longer.
The recent Census of Population 2010 found a
six percentage point increase
in the proportion of childless married women aged 30 to
39 and a near-3 percentage point increase in women
in their late 40s.
Higher-educated women are having fewer children, compared to
their less-educated counterparts, the Census found.
http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/01/14/experts-explain-spores-declining-birth-rate/
Nice article.
