Singaporean People - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

Singapore became numerically dominated by immigrant ethnic groups soon after the British annexed the island in the 19th century. It is estimated that in January 1819, Singapore had about 880 Malays and aboriginal tribes and about 20 to 30 Chinese. In 1821, it was estimated that there were nearly 3,000 Malays and more than 1,000 Chinese.

While the Singapore Department of Statistics reports overall population figures for Singapore (4.48 million in 2006), as a matter of policy, it only provides more detailed demographic breakdown analysis for the approximately 80% of the population who are Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (collectively termed 'residents'). Of this group of about 3.6 million people, Chinese form 75.2%, Malays form 13.6%, Indians form 8.8%, while Eurasians and other groups form 2.4%. No breakdown by ethnicity is released for the non-resident population.

Official figures show that the number of foreigners on short-term permits (termed 'non-residents') has grown from 30,900 in 1970 to 797,900 in 2005, which translate roughly to a 24-fold increase in 35 years, or from 1% of the population in 1970 to 18.3% in 2005. Despite this huge increase, no further breakdown is given by Singstat.

Some studies attempted to cast light on the demographic profile of Singapore's non-residents. According to 'The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora' (published in 2006), "independent surveys approximate the number of South Asians on work permits to be between 30-35 per cent of the total 'Indian' population in Singapore, or approximately 90,000-100,000." Based on this, it can be estimated that, as of June 2006, the Indian population formed 12.5% of the non-resident population, and therefore numbered between 415,000 and 430,000, or about 9.5% of the total population of about 4.5 million. It is likely the population of 'others' is similarly greater than suggested by the figures for the 'resident' population. Conversely, it is likely that the Chinese form significantly less than 75% of the total population of 4.5 million.

A figure released by the Straits Times on 20 July, 2010 shows that the total population of non- resident Singaporeans (PRs and foreigners) is around 1.79 million of which Indians are 400,000 (22.35%). The number of Indian PRs and foreigners had doubled in the previous 2 years.