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". SFPPB targeted low-socioeconomic status individuals, particularly females, and worked to encourage contraceptive use, such as condoms and birth control. 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. 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.
The government program "Stop-at-Two" was successful in achieving limited growth, but is also attributed to the initial decline of Singapore's population. Following the "Stop-at-Two" campaigns, population planning has taken the form of attempts to reverse falling birth rates. 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. This second phase of population planning has been unsuccessful at reaching and maintaining the replacement rate.
Limiting growth
Post war baby boom
Following World War II's end in 1945, the growth of Singapore's population was assessed to be unsustainable for its economic prospects; there were about 1 million born between the years of 1947 and 1964, with total live births increasing by 58%.
During this period, the average annual growth rate was 4.4%, of which 1% was due to immigration. Singapore experienced its highest birth rate in 1957 at 42.7 per thousand individuals. The associated risks of overpopulation including resource depletion, environmental degradation, heightened unemployment, and increased costs of living prompted the government's growth-culling response.
Overcrowding concerns
At the time of independence, many Singaporeans living in the Central Area lived in overcrowded shophouses. In 1947, the British Housing Committee Report noted Singapore had "one of the world's worst slums – 'a disgrace to a civilised community'", and the average person per building density was 18.2 by 1947. Rapid population growth was perceived as a threat to "political stability and living standards". Such a trend would lead to population overcrowding, which was thought to overwhelm employment opportunities and social services in education, health and sanitation. These concerns lead also to the replacement of the Singapore Improvement Trust with the Housing and Development Board to provide resettlement en masse for Singapore's overcrowded population.
Despite their fall since 1957, birth rates in the 1960s were still perceived as high. On average, a baby was born every 11 minutes in 1965; Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH) – a women's hospital where most babies in Singapore were delivered – saw over 100 deliveries per day in 1962. In 1966, KKH delivered 39,835 babies, earning it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for "largest number of births in a single maternity facility" each year for ten years. Because there was generally a massive shortage of beds in that era, mothers with routine deliveries were discharged from hospitals within 24 hours.