Rising share of women staying single is behind S’pore’s great baby drought

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the resident total fertility rate (TFR) falling to below 1 in 2023 for the first time in Singapore’s history....TFR fell to 0.97 in 2023

Since we will have an increasingly small number of women at a marriageable and child-bearing age, and births outside of wedlock are illegitimate in Singapore, the number of citizen births will likely continue to decline if the marriage rates keep declining.

many Singaporeans feel that they do not have to marry, if they cannot find Mr or Miss Right, hence the increasing prevalence of singlehood. Besides, marriage is no longer seen as a required life goal in Singapore

what is harder to achieve is to address the root causes of the beliefs that make having children seem so costly and daunting... Ironically, ...financial incentives may bolster many Singaporeans’ belief that having more money makes them better off – and so these parents feel they cannot afford to stop the daily grind, or they would lose out comparatively.