SINGAPORE – The number of babies born in 2023 fell to the lowest in at least the past 20 years, entrenching Singapore’s great baby drought.
A total of 33,541 babies were born in 2023 – a 5.8 per cent fall from the 35,605 babies born in 2022. The 2023 figure is 13.3 per cent 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) on July 11.
In February, it was announced that the resident total fertility rate (TFR) fell to below 1 for the first time in Singapore’s history, though the actual number of babies born 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 – which is one of the lowest in the world.
While the number of births has been falling, the number of deaths has been steadily climbing in the past decade.
A total of 26,888 people died in 2023, just 0.01 per cent fewer than the 26,891 deaths in 2022. The 2023 figure was 10.7 per cent 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 whose parents are of different races, 28.4 per cent had double-barrelled race. This is up from 12.9 per cent 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.