Everyday moments in Singapore often spark bigger conversations about community, kindness and life in the city. For illustration purposes only.
Will Singapore finally get more ‘crowded’? New support measures to help families thrive ignite questions
SINGAPORE: New support measures were recently announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to let Singaporean families know “if you choose to have children, the government will stand with you,” but will this encourage younger Singaporeans to make Singapore more “crowded”?
In recent years, Singaporeans have lamented that the Little Red Dot has become “crowded”.
The Independent Singapore reported in June 2024 about Singaporeans online saying the city-state’s “crowds are becoming more and more unbearable” after it was revealed that Singapore’s population surpassed six million for the first time, hitting 6.04 million, mainly due to the increase in non-resident population.
At the time, the non-resident population rose by 5% from the previous year to 1.86 million, particularly in the construction, marine, shipyard and process (CMP) sectors amid delayed projects brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although some Singaporeans were unsurprised, with one noting that “every year is a new historic high”, others voiced concerns that each population increase seemed to push up the cost of living, from housing and Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to basic food items like kopi O and cai png.
In September last year, Singaporeans voiced the same concerns when the population rose again to 6.11 million, with the increase largely driven by the growing number of foreign workers. The same sentiments were shared by netizens again, with some saying Singapore has become “expensive and crowded”.
From 1.86 million in 2024, the non-resident population rose 2.7% to 1.91 million in 2025. Most of the increase came from the CMP sectors and domestic workers.
The local population, meanwhile, rose 0.7% from June 2024 to June 2025 to 3.66 million, while the number of permanent residents remained at 0.54 million.
With the city-state’s fertility rate reaching a historic low of 0.87 in 2025 and marriage rates also dropping, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Feb 26: “If no new measures are taken, our citizen population will start to shrink by the early part of the 2040s…we cannot give up”
On Aug 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced support measures to help Singaporean families. Among the support measures announced was the SG Child Support Package, which gained the most attention. Slated to begin on April 1, 2027, the package will provide nearly S$70,000 in direct financial support for each child, regardless of birth order, from birth until age 17.
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Online, many said the support measures showed that “the Government is listening and responding to the needs of families”. Others said the support is good and will definitely help families.
Still, the question remains whether these support measures could help Singapore’s marriage rates and fertility rate finally bounce back. /TISG