Birth Rate in Singapore

Was at Takashimaya & there's a baby fair going on. During our days, where got such fairs cater to us baby back than. Furthermore, product are getting more & more fashionable nowadays.

Its a Saturday but the fair seems lacking of parents. According to the Singapore Department of Statistics, there were 37492 new born in 2005 & 38232 in 2006, which is only about 600 more. Ever since the implementation of Baby Bonus, it was already a know fact that money is not the only factors affecting Singapore's Birth Rate. Although the Baby Bonus do help a little but it is not enough to change one's thought having a baby if they don't want to have one.

The declining birth rate has reflected three key trends - increasing singlehood, later marriages and family formation, and desire for smaller families. Couples are also marrying later and postponing plans to start a family until they feel more secure financially.

Singapore's living standard has increased so much, and everyone wants their child to be groomed to be able to earn enough to survive in the future to come. The government has shown us that being a scholar (government scholar to be exact) is the only key to have a secure and bright future, and most government high-level job are given to 1st honor and above.

The amount of money and time to spend to ensure that your child has a secure and bright future, is a lot more that the baby bonus.

The cost of living, the price of HDB flats and the rules and regulation for upgrading HDB flats, are also something that most couples think about before having even a single child. So, if these conditions don't improve, the government can forget about encouraging couples to have more than one child.

On top of that, career & work commitment also play an important part. For those who contributed to the profit of the company, you are an employee. When you can't contribute its just a matter of time that you will be removed. As you can see, more & more senior citizen are joining back the workforce, have you wonder why? Are they too boring at home? My guess would be their children don't earn/have enough to cover their expenses. Therefore, when you have to take care of your parents & your own family, will you even dare to think of having more childrens?

What do you think and what are your reasons for not having a child or more than one child?