Singapore tries to boost birth rate

Community Action, Sept 20, 2004

SINGAPORE -- Faced with an alarming fall in its birth rate Singapore announced a S$300 million (C$229 million) to boost its birth rate and reverse the rapid ageing of the population.

Measures include bigger housing grants to encourage singles to marry, cash payments of up to S$18,000 if the baby is a third or fourth child, babycare subsidies, tax rebates for working mothers, longer maternity leave and more leave days for working parents.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien has made the birth rate the governments priority. A number of European countries and Quebec have attempted similar programs with only limited success.

Singapore has a fertility rate (number children for each female of child bearing age) of 1.3, which is below the population replacement rate of 2.1. In 1960 the rate was 5.8.

The new measures will cost the government an estimated S$300 million a year, bringing its total expenditure on pro-family measures to about S$800 million a year.

Most of the money would go towards children's educational development, paid leave for parents and the provision of more childcare options.