Parliamentary reply by Minister Indranee Rajah on the Total Fertility rate amongst Long-Term Visit Pass Holders

FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE
WRITTEN ANSWER
MONDAY, 4 JANUARY 2021

Ms Carrie Tan:

To ask the Prime Minister between 2010 and 2019, what is the total fertility rate (TFR) amongst Long Term Visit Pass holders who are married to Singaporeans as compared to the TFR amongst Singaporean women.

Ms Indranee Rajah (for the Prime Minister):

Like other countries, Singapore monitors resident TFR because it measures how well the resident population, which comprises Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents, is replacing itself through births. Resident TFR remained at 1.14 in 2019, the same as the year before.

The Government does not compute the TFR of LTVP holders who are married to Singaporeans separately from the resident TFR, because it is difficult to compute it in a meaningful way.

A meaningful computation of TFR will require the population included in the computation to be measured over the full childbearing age range. However, many LTVP spouses go on to become Permanent Residents and Singapore Citizens, before the end of their childbearing years. Therefore, we are unable to meaningfully compute the LTVP TFR, given the degree of change in the LTVP population, and because only a small proportion of LTVP spouses tends to be at the end of their childbearing years.

In addition, resident TFR already accounts for births to LTVP holders who are married to Singaporeans. Resident TFR for any given year is calculated based on the residency status of parents, where the numerator corresponds to resident births and the denominator corresponds to all females who are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents, or are Non-Residents married to men who are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents. Births to at least one resident parent will contribute towards the resident TFR.