Singapore Has a Demographics Problem.

[smoulder]

I believe the word is "beige" : )

The new woke "not offensive", politically correct term?

[PNGMK]

Well to fair Singapore treats young people pretty poorly and yet sucks off the useless pioneer and silver generation. The real issue though is the gender imbalance in the workplace. NS freak men's careers and that in turns pushes most women into the workplace forever. Go to TTSH for a week... all the staff except orderly are female now.

[JWNYsg]

Interesting pyramid. Thank you for sharing

[the observer]

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/s ... rs-2371911

[Pal]

Not surprised to see the low birth rate in Singapore.

Realised that many friends around us aren't having or planning to have children.

Costs of everything had increased so much in the last decade. Basic living costs, transport, property, education and medical all going up so much. This is a big problem with many newly weds.

[NYY1]

It does look like the annual PR number is at/around 35,000 now. Likely trying to keep up with the increasing SC base and declining TFR (only so much can be done with the latter). Not a huge change, but on the margin it helps those who are looking for spots or thinking about numbers for various buckets.

[the observer]

Breakdown for 2023

C 0.81, M 1.65, I 0.95.


https://www.singstat.gov.sg/find-data/s ... -dashboard

[Pal]

C is the lowest

[malcontent]

C is the lowest

There are 4 Chinese ladies of varying ages in my team, 3 of whom are unmarried and no kids, 1 is married and has her first. But I also know several couples, both Indian and Chinese who remain childless. Personally, I feel sorry for those who don’t have kids, yes, it’s expensive and a lot of trouble at times, but it’s well worth it. Even if you don’t like kids, when it’s your kid, it’s different. My advice to couples is don’t wait until you’re ready, you will never be ready. Now that I’m older, I wish we would have had more than two kids.

[Max Headroom]

I believe the word is "beige" : )

The new woke "not offensive", politically correct term?

Nah, it's the Russel Peters-approved term : )

[jalanjalan]

There are 4 Chinese ladies of varying ages in my team, 3 of whom are unmarried and no kids, 1 is married and has her first. But I also know several couples, both Indian and Chinese who remain childless. Personally, I feel sorry for those who don’t have kids, yes, it’s expensive and a lot of trouble at times, but it’s well worth it. Even if you don’t like kids, when it’s your kid, it’s different. My advice to couples is don’t wait until you’re ready, you will never be ready. Now that I’m older, I wish we would have had more than two kids.

My spouse and I didn't plan not to have kids, but life, health and family things happened. Sometimes it's not meant to be, and there's no need to feel sorry, because there are benefits to the no-kid lifestyle too. I think it's best to let people choose for themselves with no pressure or judgement either way, and society (and individuals) just gotta accept the result and make the best of it.

[smoulder]

C is the lowest

There are 4 Chinese ladies of varying ages in my team, 3 of whom are unmarried and no kids, 1 is married and has her first. But I also know several couples, both Indian and Chinese who remain childless. Personally, I feel sorry for those who don’t have kids, yes, it’s expensive and a lot of trouble at times, but it’s well worth it. Even if you don’t like kids, when it’s your kid, it’s different. My advice to couples is don’t wait until you’re ready, you will never be ready. Now that I’m older, I wish we would have had more than two kids.

I think some of the folks you see who are childless includes couples who got married relatively later in life.

For instance my wife and I were already in our mid 30s when we tied the knot and by the time we started trying to have a child, it was already a bit too late - after 3 miscarriages, we decided not to continue trying. But since we really wanted a child, we decided to adopt instead. We are very happy with our decision - our little girl is the best thing that happened to our little family. People look at us strangely because all 3 of us look completely different, but that's OK. Of course having said that, adoption is not for everyone.

After speaking with the gynecologists through our attempts to bear a child, the impression that I have is that one of the issues is couples putting off kids till it's a bit too late. There are multiple reasons for that - in my own case I only moved to Singapore when I was 33 and met my wife a few years later.

[Wd40]

In my case it is funny. When we came to Singapore, we were just married for one year. I was 30 year old and my wife was 25. My wife found a job within 6 months, but she absolutely hated the work culture here. She then decided that we should have a child and she would quit her job and want to become a full time mom. I being the typical money minded person initially didn't like the idea that she is quitting her job so soon within like 1.5 years since she got it and how difficult it is to find a job. But then she insisted that we should have a child right away because she heard her friends and relatives saying that men who work with laptops have low sperm count, lol.

We then tried for a few months and after about 6 months my wife became pregnant. Ever since that time, my wife is taking care of our child and our house, cooking cleaning, everything. My only contribution to our marriage is to bring the money. So I have been the typical spoilt indian husband.

However, last couple of months I was thinking, I am 45 and my daughter is still in 6th grade, although I am financially independent, until my daughter goes to college, we are not truly free. So although initially I resisted when my wife wanted to have a child, I am glad I agreed, because if we had delayed, then my freedom would be even more delayed.

I told this to another colleague of mine who had a son while late in his life. Like he is 50 and his son is only like 4-5 years. He told me, it is better to have kids late because when he is 80, if the kid was born early the kid would be 60, so the kid would be too old to take care of his father. But if you have kids late then they will be young enough to take care of the old parents.

I actually never thought all these aspects while having kids, lol.

[malcontent]

My brother just turned 60 and has a 3 year old… plus another bun in the oven, due in 3 months! Of course, this only works because his wife is 33. Is he crazy? Yes, he absolutely is… and always has been.

[jalanjalan]

After speaking with the gynecologists through our attempts to bear a child, the impression that I have is that one of the issues is couples putting off kids till it's a bit too late. There are multiple reasons for that - in my own case I only moved to Singapore when I was 33 and met my wife a few years later.

Therein lies the difficulty - best to have kids when young (speaking from a woman's perspective at any rate), but that is also the peak employability and career building time. Clearly not many women choose stay home mom over career, and I find that totally understandable.

We could probably do more to make parenting easier though. I remember growing up in a neighbourhood where we kids were in and out of the neighbours houses all the time, and the neighbour "aunties" helped keep an eye on us, entertain us, give us snacks. I miss that, and would happily be a neighbourhood "auntie" now I am nearing retirement and have plenty of time. Most of our neighbours now are older folk though.