Singapore's population surpasses 5 million

Aug 31, 2010, 10:00 GMT

Singapore - Singapore's population hit 5 million this year with foreigners counting for more than one-third of its people, the government's Department of Statistics said Tuesday.

By the end of June, the city-state's total population was 5.08 million, including 3.23 million Singapore citizens, the department said.

Foreigners with permanent residency reached 540,000 while the number of non-resident foreign professionals, workers and their dependents came to 1.31 million, bringing the share of foreigners of the total population to 36 per cent, the data showed.

Singapore's population growth rate in the first half of the year was 1.8 per cent when compared with the same period of the year before, 'reflecting the slower growth in the number of permanent residents and non-residents over the past year,' the department said.

Growth in the number of non-residents slowed significantly to 4.1 per cent so far this year, down from the peaks of 2007 and 2008 when increases of 15 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, were recorded, it said. In 2009, the growth rate was 4.8 per cent.

Singapore has welcomed foreigners for many years to spur its economy and to make up for its low birth rate, which stood at 1.23 children per woman in 2009, far below the replacement level of 2.1.

But the government reduced the inflow of foreigners after the global recession in 2008 as Singaporeans complained that foreigners were increasingly competing with them for jobs and housing.

In a speech Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the locals' anxieties and said the city-state would further slow the pace of foreigners entering Singapore.