THE number of babies born in 2023 fell to the lowest in at least the past 50 years, entrenching Singapore’s great baby drought.
A total of 33,541 babies were born in 2023 – a 5.8% fall from the 35,605 babies born in 2022. The 2023 figure is 13.3% lower than the 38,672 babies born in 2021.
The number of babies born in 2023 is contained in the Report on Registration of Births and Deaths 2023 published by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) last Thursday.
The 2023 figure is the lowest since 1971.
In February, it was announced that the resident total fertility rate (TFR) fell to below one for the first time in Singapore’s history, though the actual number of births in 2023 was not stated.
The TFR, which refers to the average number of babies each woman would have during her reproductive years, was 0.97 in 2023 – one of the world’s lowest.
Conversely, the number of deaths has been steadily climbing in the past decade.
A total of 26,888 people died in 2023, just 0.01% fewer than the 26,891 deaths in 2022. The 2023 figure was 10.7% higher than the 24,292 deaths in 2021.
The leading causes of deaths were heart and hypertensive diseases, and lung and respiratory system diseases, which collectively accounted for half of all deaths in 2023. About a quarter of people died from cancer in 2023.
For the first time, the 2023 report presented data on the number of babies whose births were registered with a double- barrelled race, as their parents are of different races.
Of the babies born in 2023 with parents of different races, 28.4% had double-barrelled race. This is up from 12.9% in 2014.
From 2011, inter-ethnic couples were given the option of reflecting both their races when registering their child’s birth. This is on top of the existing option of choosing to reflect only either the father’s or the mother’s race.
The move comes given the growing number of inter-ethnic marriages over the years.
Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) senior research fellow Kalpana Vignehsa said: “As Singapore has become a globally connected city, it has become more common for people to want to recognise ethnic diversity within themselves and their children.”
Dr Tan Poh Lin, another IPS senior research fellow, said data from the Department of Statistics showed that the fertility rate fell among female Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 25-29 and 30-34, one reason behind the falling number of births in 2023.
Prof Jean Yeung, director of social sciences at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Institute for Clinical Sciences, said the cost of having children falls disproportionally on women as gender norms still assign most caregiving and housework responsibilities to women. — The Straits Times/ANN
