Singapore's population has reached a record high of 6.04 million, rising two per cent from last year, as the manpower-constrained city-state took in more foreign workers, according to an official report.
The figure was released on Tuesday by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in the annual Population in Brief report by the National Population and Talent Division.
The population figure has crossed the six million mark for the first time in Singapore's history.
Of the 6.04 million people in the city-state as of June 2024, there were 4.18 million residents and about 1.86 million non-residents, which comprise the foreign workforce, migrant domestic workers, dependants and international students.
According to the report, the non-resident population jumped by about 5 per cent from last year.
The increase was seen across most ‘work pass’ types, with work permit holders contributing most to the rise (44 per cent of the non-resident population), followed by migrant domestic workers (15 per cent of the non-resident population).
“The (non-resident) population is diverse, and its size and composition fluctuate depending on our economic and social needs,” Channel News Asia reported, citing the report.
“As Singapore is fundamentally labour constrained, the foreign workforce complements our local workforce and allows companies to access a broader range of skills from the global labour pool,” said the report.
It also reiterated that Singapore’s total population is likely to be "significantly" below 6.9 million by 2030, referring to a figure included in a Population White Paper released in 2013.
The NPTD of the Prime Minister’s Office had said in the white paper that the city-state's total population could range between 6.5-6.9 million by 2030. This sparked a public outcry, after which the government clarified the figure was not a forecast or target but for planning purposes.
