The birth rate in Singapore

Singapore is well known as one of a small group of countries experiencing a substantial decline in recent birth rates. Writers have observed that this trend has occurred in association with other characteristics such as numerically small populations, areally small national units, insularity, a sizea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population studies 1978-03, Vol.32 (1), p.113-133
Main Author: Neville, Warwick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Age structure
Birth control
Birth rates
Births
Demography
Demography/Demographic/ Demographical
Depopulation
Developing countries
Ethnic groups
Family planning
Female fertility
Fertility
Fertility rates
Growth
History of medicine
History, Modern 1601
Population/Populations/ Populationists
Reproduction
Singapore
Statistics as Topic - history
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Summary:Singapore is well known as one of a small group of countries experiencing a substantial decline in recent birth rates. Writers have observed that this trend has occurred in association with other characteristics such as numerically small populations, areally small national units, insularity, a sizeable Chinese (or non-indigenous Asian) component linked with the traditionally modest fertility levels of East Asian populations, and favourable economic development of socio-economic conditions. 1 Within Singapore, monitoring of the official family planning programme has been carried out since its inception, and findings have been published at frequent intervals. 2 In these reports such considerations as scale of response, characteristics of respondents and methods of contraception, have been examined and conclusions have been drawn about the impact of the programme and its success in reaching the target population. The purpose of this paper is to examine the major demographic variables accounting for the change in birth rates, to determine the relative importance of each and to ascertain whether they have operated in similar ways in the main ethnic groups in the population. 3 Fundamental structural components of the female population are examined first in some detail. Because of the constraints of the data the association of certain social and economic characteristics relative to fertility levels are then discussed more briefly, and in the concluding section an attempt is made to assess the overall policy implications of these findings.
ISSN:0032-4728
1477-4747
DOI:10.1080/00324728.1978.10412795