Singapore: The Issue of Falling Fertility Rate and Fertility

Singapore is a developed capitalist state, known as one of the “four Asian tigers”, located in Southeast Asia. It is one of the most important services and shipping centers in Asia, and also known as the commercial and education hub in Asia. However, Singapore has a very complicated ethnic composition and winding historical process which have had a huge impact on the fertility rate. After a long period of the British colonial domination, Singapore broke away from the British’s control and joined Malaysia in 1963. In 1965, Singapore again broke away from Malaysia government and became an independent and democratic state. These transition phases have had a profound impact on the economy, education and population of Singapore. There was an obvious decline in the fertility rate from the 1960s to the 2000s. The fertility rate remained stubbornly low which also termed as the ‘low fertility trap’². However, what is the main reason for the declined fertility rate? In this research essay, the discussion will focus on the correlation between government measures and the fertility rate. Many government programmes and policies were released from the 1960s to the 2000s. For example, population control programme, pro-natalist and anti-natalist policies, etc.

The calculation method of the fertility rate is very crucial in this research essay which ensured the accuracy and credibility of the evaluation. The crude birth rate is defined as the total amount of produced live-births in one year per thousand populations³. This figure is applied in calculating the total fertility rate which is one of the most commonly used measures to investigate the fertility rate and trend¹. The total number of births increased year after year since the World War II, from 43,045 in 1947 to the peak amount of 62,495 in 1958³. The crude birth rate maintained at above 40 per thousand populations, up to 1954³. However, the crude birth rate and total fertility rate started to fall in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The total fertility rate continuously decreased from 5.65 per cent in 1960 to 3.03 per cent in 1970, from 1.66 per cent in 1980 to 1.67 per cent in 1990, and finally it reached the lowest total fertility rate at 1.09 per cent in the late 2000s³. The low crude birth rates and declined total fertility rate indicated the rapid demographic ageing issue². Moreover, an associated feature of demographic ageing known as the ‘feminisation of ageing’, due to the longer lifespan of women as females live longer than males by four or five years².

Firstly, the discussion will focus on the Post-War period up to the late 1960s. In 1959, the People’s Action Party decided to build high-rise flats, known as the HDB, where the citizens could be resettled. The government also established the Economic Development Board (EDB) to develop industrial infrastructure and promote investment to create more jobs⁵. Moreover, ingrained beliefs from the culture and religion had produced the extremely high fertility rate during the first post-war decade. Chinese Singaporean had a very large family as the extended family and kinship system were the basics of the Chinese culture. Furthermore, during the post-war decade, women were expected to marry early and produce more children. Also, there were early investments in education and healthcare, especially family planning to lower fertility and slow population growth.

The fertility rate began to decline from the 1960s onwards. The referenced report investigated the fertility rate and trend up to the late 1970s. Additional attention was attracted by the developments that had taken place in the 1970s³. The fertility transition that occurred in Singapore should cover all three main races in the country, referred to as Chinese, Malay and Indian. In the 1960s, the annual decline was around 5 per cent in most years for the Chinese group, the decline was enlarged to 9.4 per cent in 1967, 10.4 per cent in 1968 and 8.5 per cent in 1969, this showing that the introduced government programmes worked³. On the other hand, the trending in Malay population maintained at high fertility after World War II until 1963 when the total fertility rate peaked at 6.73 per cent³. The delayed start of the fertility decline among the Malays may be attributed to many factors, the most important one is the incidence of divorce. As for Indian, the total fertility rate of the Indians showed a clear falling trend from 1961 onwards³. In comparison with that of the Chinese, the fertility decline of the Indians was rather slow and gathered speed only after government family planning services were made available after 1966³.

Since the independence of Singapore in 1965, Singapore’s great performance on the economic transformation has surprised the world. The development progresses in the economic and social development, and the speed of change is unmatched. However, there are many disadvantages such as lacking land space, no natural resources, having a vulnerable economy system that fluctuated in international trade, and an economic development program that was unviable. During this period, Singapore was also oppressed by a health problem, inferior housing, and an undereducated population. Hence, the Singapore government strongly urged to rectify these problems. In order to resolve the above difficulties and become a modernized and developed country after the independence, there are cultural and social changes expressed in the breakdown of the extended family system, changing the perspective of the family size and higher levels of education. Before separating from the federation with Malaysia, the PAP set a course, under the advisement of the world bank, towards import-substitution industrialization, which was a typical approach at that time for developing countries⁴. The government expected industries with labour intensive, such as textiles, would decrease the unemployment rate. In general, the government of Singapore put economic development in the first place and had a great achievement in the economic development. Moreover, fast and rapid economic growth required more labours in industrials including women. The labour participation rate of women had increased from 18.0 per cent in 1957 to 25.7 per cent in 1970, and still further to 32.5 per cent in 1977¹. Besides, the prime reproductive ages of women have increased. Single women were encouraged to delay their marriage and married women to terminate childbearing so that they were able to continue the work.

Fertility policies affected the reproductive behaviour of the population. Pronatalist and anti-natalist are the two types of fertility policies that had a great impact on the fertility rate. Pronatalist policies were designed to encourage childbearing by persuading citizens to produce more children so that the rate of fertility rate was raised. On the other hand, anti-natalist policies were designed to discourage childbearing which meant to do the exact opposite. In the mid-1960s, the Singapore government adopted an anti-natalist policy which was the population control programme. This programme referred to the laws concerning the abortion to make it available to women on request. There were about 59,359 legal abortions performed in between 1970 to 1977, apart from the illegal 23,791 spontaneous abortions¹. The termination of pregnancies resulted in a reduction in the fertility rate. This programme accelerated the decline in the population growth and hence the rate of fertility rate. The population control programme consisted of four major components: government family planning, induced abortion, voluntary sterilisation and incentives and disincentives aimed at reducing the fertility rate³. The implementation of these components had a momentous impact on the fertility rate in Singapore. The birth control measure aimed to space children and limit the family size which were accomplished by the individuals in Singapore. Moreover, during the post-war period, the need for family planning was raised as the nation encountered social and economic, and food shortages problems. From 1966 onwards, the national family planning programme was introduced which accelerated the decreasing rate of fertility. This programme recruited 156,556 new acceptors during the first five-year plan for 1966-1970 and 89,501 during the second five-year plan for 1971-1975¹. In addition, the Board of Singapore induced abortion as a complement to the family planning programme³. In 1967, the Minister announced the legalization of the induced abortion. A total number of 1,913 abortions were performed during the last nine months in 1970³. Furthermore, legalization of the sterilization was also one of the population control programme. The Sterilisation Bill was passed by the Parliament in 1969 which led to at least 60,689 women and men sterilized between 1970-77¹. The cumulative sterilization exerted a great influence on the fertility rate in these years as they lose the ability to produce children. The sterilization was performed in Kandang Kerbau Hospital and Toa Payoh Hospital³. Sterilization was one of the most important components in the population control programmes. It was promoted by giving incentives to the married women and men to undergo the sterilization. Finally, other controlled measures like maternity leave, accouchement fees, income tax, housing, education and work permits were intended at promoting the two-child family policy by discouraging high order births. These measures had succeeded in making reductions in births of order three and above which also resulted in the fertility decline during the 1970s period. Therefore, anti-natalist policies exceedingly reduced the fertility rate in Singapore.

The rapid decline in the fertility rate to the replacement level in 1975 and the continuation of the fertility rate below this level led to major changes in the programme in 1987 in order to encourage more births for the couples. There was the appearance of pronatalist policies in the 1980s. The anti-natalist policy known as “Girl or Boy, Two Is Enough” at the time of the 1960s to 1970s was replaced by the pronatalist policies in 1987². During the transition period from anti-natalist to pronatalist, the political leadership was worried not only about increasing the fertility rate to replacement level, but doing so among the higher-educated citizens. The Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew proclaimed the “Graduate-Mother Priority Scheme,” correcting the “lopsided” pattern, referring to women have higher level education with lower fertility rate during National Day speech in 1983, failing which, he warned ³: “Levels of competence will decline. Our economy will falter, the administration will suffer, and the society decline. For how can we avoid lowering performance when for every two graduates, in 25 years’ time there will be one graduate, and for every two uneducated workers, there will be three?”³. In 1987, the government launched a new policy under the theme “Have Three, or More If You Can Afford It”. The focus was shifted to the adequacy of economic resources instead of the parents’ educational qualifications³. In 2000, the pronatalist policy was again changed to “Strong and Stable Families”. Hence, the slogan became “Singapore. A Great Place for Families” In 2004. The changes in slogans indicated the Singapore government’s attitude towards the fertility rate in Singapore, and these slogans had great impact on the changing fertility rate.

In the mid-1980s, the minister of state BG Lee Hsien Loong directed the economic committee, emphasized that the education could be a very crucial section in the economic development which boosted the local economy. In 1998, the scheme by the Economic Development Board was released to attract at least ten important universities to set up their campus in Singapore⁵. This had greatly improved the economic performance in Singapore. The government also offered some incentives to encourage childbirth after 1987. More benefits were available to women, for example, childcare leave and conditional sterilization leave were granted for the female civil servants since 1987. The flexible hours’ scheme was announced in 2000 as well. As a result, the working time was adjusted from five-and-a-half-day to a five-day workweek in the civil service in 2004³. Moreover, Foreign workers were an essential part to relieve the shortage of labour issue. Hence, this reduced the working and living stress for Singaporean, and citizens were able to put more effort into forming families. The population increased at a faster 2.3 per cent rate during 1980-90 and 2.9 per cent during the 1990s-2000s³. The economic difficulties in recent years led to a slow rate of population decrease, 1.0 per cent in 2002 and 0.3 per cent in 2003¹.

Moreover, a worldwide financial crisis that happened in 1997 resulted in a further decline in the fertility rate. The massive impact of this financial crisis led to the termination of many large enterprises, increased unemployment rate, and family separation. As for the family aspect, the depression of surviving affected family formation, divorce rate and the fertility rate. The family income decreased due to the economic uncertainty, and hence, they would not produce children anymore. Besides, studies showed that the financial status was related to the fertility rate, declined income resulted in the low fertility rate⁷.

In conclusion, there are many implemented programmes, measures as well as policies that had great impacts on the fertility rate in Singapore during the 1960s to the 2000s period. For example, the anti-natalist policies such as the Singapore national family planning and population program which accelerated the decline of the fertility rate. The Singapore government put the effort into finding ways to increase their fertility rate, but with little success obtained. Many pronatalist policies were implemented which aimed to encourage higher educated women to have more children. However, the fertility rate continued dropping in the late 1990s and 2000s, one of the factors is explained by the financial crisis in the late 1990s. The falling fertility rate in Singapore during the 1960s-2000s had caused by many factors, and among all the factors, there is a very strong correlation between the fertility rate and the government measures.

Reference:

1. Saw, Swee-Hock. Population Policies and Programmes in Singapore. ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, 2016.
2. Chan, Wing Cheong. Singapores Ageing Population: Managing Healthcare and End-of-Life Decisions. Routledge, 2017.
3. Sun, Shirley Hsiao-Li. Population Policy and Reproduction in Singapore: Making Future Citizens. Routledge, 2014.
4. Abshire, Jean E. The History of Singapore: Jean E. Abshire. Greenwood, 2011.
5. Lim, Linda, and Soo Ann Lee. Singapores Economic Development: Retrospection and Reflections. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd, 2016.
6. Lian, Kwen Fee, and Chee Kiong. Tong. Social Policy in Post-Industrial Singapore. Brill, 2008.
7. Sobotka, Tomáš. “Economic Recession and Fertility in the Developed World.” Population and Development Review, 1 June 2011, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23043283?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.