Population planning in Singapore

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Population planning in Singapore has reflected various policies to both slow and boost the growth rate of Singapore's population. Singapore first began population planning initiatives in an attempt to slow and reverse the rapid increase in births that began after World War II. Later on, from the 1980s, policy was tailored towards growth, attempting to encourage mothers to have more children. In 2020, the annual total population growth rate in Singapore was -0.3%, and its resident total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.10, below the replacement rate of 2.1.

The first phase started with the launch of the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board in 1966 to aggressively promote family planning after Singapore faced "post-war food and housing shortages".^[1] SFPPB targeted low-socioeconomic status individuals, particularly females, and worked to encourage contraceptive use, such as condoms and birth control.^[1] The SFPPB advocated for small families, establishing the "Stop-at-Two" program, which encouraged and benefited two-children families and subsequent sterilisation . SFPPB also opened more clinics to better the health and welfare of families.^[1] Aside from encouraging small families, policies set in place by the government during the "Stop-at Two" era de-incentivized having more than two children; civil workers were not paid for maternity leave after their second child, children's hospital fees were higher for third and subsequent children, top school choices were given to only children with parents who had been sterilized before the age of 40, and sterilization itself was rewarded with seven days of paid leave.^[2]

The government program "Stop-at-Two" was successful in achieving limited growth, but is also attributed to the initial decline of Singapore's population.^[3] Following the "Stop-at-Two" campaigns, population planning has taken the form of attempts to reverse falling birth rates.^[4] The Singaporean government eventually became pro-natalist, and officially announced its replacement "Have-Three-or-More (if you can afford it)" campaign in 1987, where the government began to encourage and incentivize larger families for financially-stable families. Additionally, the Social Development Unit (SDU) was established in 1984 to promote marriage and romance between educated individuals.^[5] This second phase of population planning has been unsuccessful at reaching and maintaining the replacement rate.^[2]