Singapore
- Capital:
- Singapore
- Continent:
- Asia
- Region(s):
- Southeast Asia
- Largest Cities:
- Singapore
- Abbreviation:
- SGP
* As of 6/9/2025
1 birth
Every 10.6 minutes
1 death
Every 17.6 minutes
1 immigrant
Every 31.3 minutes
1 person
Every 14.4 minutes
Singapore is officially known as the Republic of Singapore and is located in Southeast Asia. It is an island country off the Malay Peninsula and is 137 Kilometers north of the equator. Singapore is comprised of 63 islands which are separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor. As a country, it has been extensively urbanized and still has a little primary rainforest left despite the fact that most of its land is developed and has been acquired through land reclamation.
As of the end of June 2012, the Island’s population stood at 5.31 million, making it the second densest sovereign state in the world behind Monaco. It’s a multiracial and subsequently multicultural country, with a majority of the population being Chinese.
74.2% of Singapore’s population is Chinese with Malays accounting for 13.2%, the second largest but distantly placed community in the country. Indians also comprise part of the minority group and account for only 9.2% of the population. The Malays are acknowledged as the indigenous community in the Island, although they primarily are descendants of the post-1945 migrations from Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Island has four official languages: Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. English is used as a mandatory language in schools and is also the main working language in Singapore.
Singapore is a very religiously diverse nation, with faith systems from all over the world and the stance of the government on religion is one of religious tolerance although the faiths of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Unification Church are banned. Mahayana Buddhism is the most widely followed religion in the Island, although its followers don’t form a majority in the country with 33.2% of the population. 11% of people are Taoist, 18.7% are Christian, 14% are Muslim, 5% are Hindu, 0.6% practice Sikhism or another religion, all which 17.5% of people have no religion at all.
As of 2011, Singapore has an average life expectancy of 82 years, per the World Factbook. This average is taken from a male life expectancy of 80 and 85 for females. The figure slots the country as the fourth best in terms of world life expectancy. The only countries to go above this record are Japan, Switzerland and San Marino. Life expectancy is the number of years that a newborn infant is expected to live, in the event that the factors affecting mortality don’t change all throughout his or her lifetime. Like many other countries, women have a longer life compared to men in Singapore.
The government is Singapore is what is known as a parliamentary representative democratic republic, which means that there is a president that serves as the head of state, as well as a prime minister that is in charge of both the government and its multi-party system. Singapore became independent from Malaysia in 1965 and has had its constitution since, which the Nation Assembly has the power to amend. The executive branch is made up of the prime minister, president and the Cabinet. Singapore has a single-chambered parliament that creates laws and amendments, as well as supervises the cabinet appointed by the prime minister. In the judicial branch, the Supreme Court is the highest judicial office, and is made up both a High Court and the Court of Appeal.
Back in 1960, the population stood at 1.7 million people. In the last half-century, the population has seen a change of 222% as reported by Statistics Singapore. The country grew by over 3.06 million over the last 50 years and reached an all-time high of 5.81 million in 2018, up from an all-time low of 1.65 in December 1960. Statistically, 0.08% of the world’s population is represented by Singapore, which translates to one person in every 1,346 on earth living in Singapore.
Just after World War II and the Japanese invasion, Singapore experienced a post-World War II baby boom, which resulted in an increased birth rate and significantly reduced death rates. By that time, the annual population growth rate was 4.4%, with immigration directly contributing 1%. The highest birth rate was later experienced in 1957 with a total of 42.7 per every thousand individuals. Starting in 1960, the government chose to fund family planning programs; and after its independence in 1965, the birth rate fell to 29.5 per thousand individuals, while the natural growth rate had fallen to 2.5%.