Our population has reached 5 million last year. The place has becomes very crowded. We still see ‘commuters’ with huge trolley luggage bags on the trains every day. Whenever I passed by People’s Park Complex to get my Chinese herbs, there seems to be more mainland Chinese than locals around that place. Many operate and sell their hometowns' tit-bits and foodstuffs,feeling very much at home.
Our ‘non-resident’ population will continue to grow rapidly with new initiatives on the pipeline such as new sports hub and motorsports hub. Booming leisure and entertainment sectors will ensure that demand for workers (especially low-key foreign workers) remains high. Unlike Japan, our economic model is one that aims to achieve the highest possible growth at whatever cost. We are really in a hurry.
The 2010 Population Census throws out some interesting numbers. Out of the 5 million people, there are only 3.2m Singaporeans. The number of citizens increased at a snail pace with only 24k added on a yearly basis for the last 10 years. The biggest age group is those from age 45-54, and in terms of old age support ratio, the Department of Statistics actually defines old age as 65 years old and above (so we are expected to retire at 65, not 55!).
The ageing population will become a very serious issue in 5 to 10 years time when those in this age group grow older. So I can understand why our government has to adopt a very friendly immigration policy. However it does seem to me that our ‘impressive’ population number comes mainly from the ‘non-residents’ (1.3m of them) category, which is something we shouldn’t be so proud of. The pace of PRs becoming citizens seems too slow.
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