S'pore fertility rate remains low but govt still refuses to support with lower costs

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S'PORE FERTILITY RATE REMAINS LOW BUT GOVT STILL REFUSES TO SUPPORT WITH LOWER COSTS

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2 Nov 2014 - 6:57pm








There are more babies born in the first nine months of this year, as compared to last year but this is still much lower than the 2.1 fertility rate to replace the population.
In the first nine months of this year, there were 30,916 newborns, as compared to 29,394 over the same period last year, latest statistics from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore show. This is a 5 percent increase.

However, Singapore’s fertility rate of 1.19 still puts it as one of the lowest in the world.

Singapore’s low fertility rate has been ongoing for several years and does not look set to reverse anything soon.

=> Short of deposing the FAP Traitors?

Singapore’s ex-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had once famously said that he would throw in two years of the average Singaporean's salary just to "prove that super-sized monetary incentives would only have a marginal effect on fertility rates”.

A look at some other countries which have been successful in turning around their fertility situation would put paid to Mr Lee’s conjecture.
In Norway, parents are able to receive 49 weeks with 100 percent of pay or 59 weeks with 80 percent of pay.
There are 52 weeks in a year.

Work hours in Norway are short and productivity is high. Healthcare and childcare services are also heavily subsidised.
To reverse Singapore’s low fertility rate, the Singapore government would be well put to learn from countries like Norway.







Today, Singaporeans work the longest hours in the world, at 48 hours a week while Norwegians only have to work 33 hours a week.

The median wage in Singapore is only about $3,000 but this is $8,000 in Norway. Norwegians thus have a much higher purchasing power than Singaporeans.

The Norwegian government also subsidises healthcare costs by 85 percent but the Singaporean government only subsidises 30 percent. Norwegians need only pay a cap of $400 every year for healthcare while Singaporeans can spend more than $1,000 for just one operation.

As of September this year, the median full day fees for childcare programmes in Singapore is $850 per month. Norwegian parents only need to pay a cap of $440 every month.

The combination of high wages and high purchasing power, low work hours and yet high productivity, and low healthcare and childcare costs, as well as favourable parental benefits, have enabled the Norwegians to continue to maintain a reasonable standard of living and contribute to a high fertility rate.

Norway’s fertility rate of 1.8 is much closer to the replacement rate of 2.1.

Even as the Singapore government claims to lament about the latest statistics, it is clear what needs to be done to increase fertility.

Perhaps the government’s resistance towards increasing spending to increase fertility has more to do with its unwillingness to increase funding on its end, rather than a belief that higher funding would not contribute to higher fertility rate.

Last year, the Singapore government took to announcing the Population White Paper to increase the foreign population, in a bid to address the low fertility rates.


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