Religion
Most of the Chinese citizens of Singapore show some degree of connection to Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism or to some combination of these three. Practically all the Malay citizens and some part Indian citizens follow Islam which is the official religion of almost one sixth of the population of Singapore Island. Approximately all the Christians are Chinese and this community is growing quickly and now comprise more than 10% of population. Virtually all of the outstanding population is composed of Hindus.
Ethnic Groups
Singapore became statistically dominated by immigrant ethic clusters after 1819. As per the records Singapore had about 880 Malays and with only 20 -30 Chinese populace in 1819 where as in 1821 the population of Chinese rose to 1000 and that of Malays to 3000. As per the 2000 consensus the demographic breakdown of ethnic groups is as follows:
Chinese form 76.8% of population, Malay constitutes 13.9%, Indian 7.9% while the people of other ethnicities form the remaining 1.4%.
Language
The national language of the Singapore is Malay even though English is mainly used since it functions as a link between the different ethnic clusters and is the language of administration and the educational system. The spoken English used in day to day conversations is called Singlish.
The Singaporean government has been encouraging the usage of Mandarin which is the official type of Chinese language in Singapore and also China and Taiwan. The older generation of the Chinese populace still use Chinese dialects like Hakka, Hokkien, Hainanese, Teochew and Cantonese but these are declining very rapidly over the period of time.
Among the Indian languages spoken in Singapore about 60% of Indians speak Tamil while other languages spoken by them are Hindi, Telgu and Malayalam.
Population
As per July 2011, Singapore’s population was estimated at 5.18 million which included 3.16 million citizens, 1.4 million non-residents foreigners and 0.53 million PR’s. It’s a multicultural Island with a 74% of Chinese population, Malay being 13% and Indians being in minority consisting about 9.2% of the population. The Malays are recognised as the native community though majority are the descendants of the Indonesian and Malaysian immigrants that migrated in Singapore after 1945.
According to the statistics of the year 2011, the yearly population growth rate was 1.993%, the fertility rate was 0.78 children per women. Demographically, it is suffering from a low fertility rate which is significantly lower than the replacement rate. The resultant child deficit also means fewer male conscripts and local workers.
Singapore has an exceptional maternal mortality rate of only 9 deaths per 100,000 live births as per the statistics of 2008. As per the infant mortality rates there were a total of 2.65 deaths per 1000 live births, among which the male deaths were 2.76 deaths per 1000 live births and 2.53 deaths per 1000 live births in females.
Literacy levels
Total literate population is 92.5% which is the population over 15 years of age and can read and write. Among these 92.5%, male literacy is 96.6% whereas female literacy is 88.6%. The expenditure in Education accounted to 3% of GDP as per the consensus of 2000. |
