Singaporean People

Singaporean People

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Singapore, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

By end of June 2012, the island's population stood at 5.31 million. It is the second densest sovereign state in the world, after Monaco. Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural country with a majority population of Chinese (74.2% of the resident population), with substantial Malay (13.2%) and Indian minorities (9.2%). The Malays are recognised as the indigenous community although most are the descendants of post-1945 immigrants from Indonesia and Malaysia. Mahayana Buddhism is most widely adhered to in Singapore though followers do not represent the majority, with significant numbers following Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism or no religion at all. The annual total population growth rate for the year 2012 was about 2.5%. The four official languages of Singapore are Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. English is the main working language and is the mandatory first language in all schools in Singapore. Singapore’s resident total fertility rate (TFR) was of 1.2 in 2011; the Chinese, Malay and Indian fertility rate was 1.08, 1.64 and 1.09 respectively. In 2010, the Malay fertility rate was about 70% higher than that of Chinese and Indians. Singapore has attempted to boost the fertility rate for years to the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman.