The National Population and Talent Division of the Prime Minister’s Office in Singapore released an ‘Occasional Paper’ outlining five different scenarios for the city-state’s population. It calls 2012 ‘a demographic turning point’ and forecasts that, with the current fertility rate of 1.2 children per woman, the population of citizens now numbering 3.3 million would start shrinking by 2025 and could decline by nearly 20% by 2060. The various scenarios discuss the impact of accepting different numbers of immigrants ranging from 15,000 to 25,000 annually. It deems that “an immigration inflow of between 20K and 25K new citizens each year will keep the citizen population size stable” but recognizes that the median population age would still rise owing to the country’s high life expectancy. “There will be fewer citizens at the working-ages to support the growing pool of elderly citizens”, warns the report. read the full report.
