I just had a look at Singapore's last census done 10 years ago. The total population at the time was just over four million, of whom 3.2 million were Singapore residents. More than 2.64 million or nearly 82.5% of them were born in Singapore. There were also more than 303,000 residents born in Malaysia, over 29,000 born in Indonesia, more than 145,000 born in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, more than 58,000 born in South Asia, over 14,000 born in other parts of Asia, more than 4,000 born in Europe and over 3,000 born in the USA and Canada.
The fifth census this year will show more foreign-born new citizens. A Straits Times report in April 2009 said: "Last year, 20,513 foreigners became citizens, while 79,167 took up permanent residency." According to a Channel NewsAsia report in December 2007, "The whole of last year saw 13,209 foreigners taking up Singapore citizenship and 57,310 taking up permanent residency. In the first 10 months of this year, Singapore attracted 13,969 new citizens — much higher than the average of 9,600 in the past five years — and 53,011 new permanent residents (PRs), a 21 percent rise compared to the average of 43,600 in the last five years.'' So, Singapore gained more than 86,000 new citizens between 2002 and 2008.
Despite the new citizens and growing number of permanent residents, who are also counted among Singapore residents, the population of Singapore now shows a greater presence of foreigners than 10 years ago. Singapore last year had a population of 4.98 million of whom 3.73 million were Singapore residents, according to the Statistics Department of Singapore. That means 74.8% of the population were Singapore residents. Back in the year 2000, Singapore residents — then over 3.2 million — made up 81.2% of the four million population.
Here is a chart showing the population increase since 2000, based on Statistics Singapore data.
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