Singapore has decided to invest in boosting the birth rate

Singapore announced yesterday a new package of incentives that will bring the public support available to every child up to the age of 17 to nearly 70,000 local dollars – over 47,000 euros. There will be more parental leave, a greater state contribution to companies that grant it, and more assistance with buying a first home. The aim, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, is to “make it easier” for those who want to have children to start a family. So it is not just Europe: in recent years, the Asian city-state has also become a stark example of the demographic crisis affecting the industrialised and ultra-wealthy world. Out of a population of just over six million, the fertility rate fell in 2025 to a record low of 0.87 children per woman, down from 0.97 in 2024 (to maintain a stable population without immigration, a rate of around 2.1 children per woman would be required).

Singapore is now very close to the levels seen in South Korea, which holds the record for the world’s lowest fertility rate. And it seems almost paradoxical for a place built almost from scratch in the mid-1960s on the promise of being wealthy, efficient and safe, with housing and public services organised as a vast experiment in social engineering. But it is that very modernity which today makes it difficult, in a society with a Chinese cultural heritage, to care for the elderly (next year, over 21 per cent of Singapore’s population will be over 65; by 2030, it will be one in four) whilst at the same time planning a new family with children, in a highly competitive environment where children are – alas – above all an unaffordable cost. Prime Minister Wong has promised to spend more to encourage Singaporeans to have children, but yesterday he also warned that public money cannot solve everything: “If we relied solely on births, our citizen population would decline,” he said. For this reason, the city-state will continue to rely on immigration, albeit at a “measured and sustainable” pace.