This paper will explore the population phenomena pertaining to Singapore acquiring and sustaining low fertility, which has ultimately resulted in an ageing population. There is a multitude of interconnected factors that have contributed to Singapore’s low fertility, and more importantly how this has reduced younger populations being added every year. However, this paper will focus on the premise that women’s higher educational attainment has prompted a delay in marriage, and thus a delay in having babies. Therefore, this paper will evaluate statistics retrieved from the International Data Base from the Census Bureau Website that include the Total Fertility Rate and Age Specific Fertility Rate in Singapore over a span of twenty years. …show more content…
The Age Specific Fertility Rate is contingent on the age of a woman and places her in groups of women based on their age and then predicts how many babies each woman is expected to have over a period of time based on a specific population (Poston & Bouvier, 2010, p. 45). In Singapore, the Age Specific Fertility Rate peaked for women between the ages 30-34 in 1997, 2007, and 2017. However, while there was a reduction in fertility rates for all ages across a women’s life span from 1997 to 2007, there was a slight increase in fertility rates in 2017 for the age groups 30-34, 34-39, 40-44, and 45-49 (Refer to Graph 1). While elderly women tend to have fewer babies on average than younger ones, which is true for Singapore, the slight increase in childbearing in later years indicates changes in the structure of individual lives and the society as a whole. This data ultimately suggests that women in Singapore are waiting longer to get married and have children, which are pertinent causes of the country’s low fertility and ageing population. While there are many societal and economic factors contributing to delays in marriage and reproduction, this paper will focus primarily on the increase of Singaporean women obtaining higher education and subsequently joining the workforce. In the article, “Delayed marriage and ultra low fertility in Singapore…”
People are living longer because of significant improvements to health care system that has occurred over a five-year period, a drop of individuals who smoke has resulted in a decline of people who suffer from smoking-induced conditions like lung and heart disease, the numbers of people who smoke have gone from 19 percent to 16 percent. Moreover, a fall in child and infant death rates by 20 percent from 2007 - 2012 has also added to increased life expectancy. Falling fertility rates (TFR) have also been declining which is also a cause of an ageing population. The fertility rate have been falling for an extended period, with TFR, being its highest in 1961 at 2.1 but since then it has gradually declined and in 1999 it was at its lowest of 1.75 and as 2014 was 1.80 and now in 2016 is
Fertility rates differ when comparing specific cultural, ethnic, and religious groups. There are reasons to explain these rates that vary by population. The first thing to note is that highly educated or families that are well off produce fewer children as their children normally attend college and often weigh the expenditure of time and money when considering more children. The second is that those women not in the labor force on general have more children/larger family on average when compared to those women that are employed. Non-Hispanic whites, due to historically being a largest part of the population, have fertility rates are slightly lower than average. African Americans fertility rates have almost mirrored those of Non-Hispanic
Based on the Census, from 2005 to 2050 (Figure 1) the presumptions about richness and birth rates, dying, immigration, and migration are the 3 main categories for demographic change. These shouldn’t be looked upon as expectations for further years to come, since they are dependent on the future drifts in socioeconomic and political enclosures. Moroeover, these hypotheses can expand because of critical parts of the populace interrelated progressions. A sample is if migration lessens. This could then accelerate a decrease in the conception rate because of recommended examination expressing that vast families have a tendency to be connected with the migrant populace instead of local conceived occupants.
Even if our world’s fertility rate is falling, our population will continue to grow from when the fertility rates were high. The populations momentum is tied into the Demographic Transition concept because it is based off of four stages. According to our book, the four stages all rely on the falling and rising rates of fertility and death. Population momentum falls under the third stage of the Demographic Transition because of the fertility rate falling. Even though the fertility rate has lowered, that generation will live longer, so our populations will continue to grow for another twenty years. By that time, the fertility rate could begin to grow again. It is an ever-changing transition. “Urbanization, modernization, and the empowerment of women push fertility rates downward, thus ushering in the final stage of the Demographic Transition. Put another way, the urbanization of society - if also associated with modernization and women’s rights - helps slow the rate of growth” (Smith, 2010, pg.
In the united states women are now putting the choice to have a family for a later time because they are putting their career on the line, but the health issues like a women only has till a certain age to have kids before they start having health issues is what pressures them to have kids. Money is another reason why parents chose to have kids at a later age, having a kid in the united states is expensive; child care itself its over 1500 a month. In a society where 1 out 4 families live check by check, having a kid might be a setback to them. Education, health, and money are the main social structures that influence on why parents in this society are looking to have a kids at later age, and this is shaping families in various
This spread in the demographic data available to contemporary researchers show that as nations become more developed, fertility rates do not increase exponentially as predicted, nor even linearly, but eventually plateau or potentially even decrease. This concept, demographic transition, has many contributing factors, many of which are uncertain. Still, even if these influences are poorly constrained, the overall trend towards replacement rates of reproduction is well established. The best example of steady and sustainable population levels is the European Union. The EU is highly industrially and agriculturally developed, yet has growth rates near zero percent, and not only a sufficient domestic food supply, but an exportable surplus of grains.
In addition, another important change that emerged in modernity was the idea that both men and women were marrying and having children much later in life. One of the major reasons for this change was the advancement in educational attainment. Due to this rise in education, women are becoming much more autonomous and are willing to postpone their marriages in order for them to pursue the life that they always wanted (Kumagai, 2016). Since men and women are getting married much later, it is almost natural that they are too having children later. When looking at the statistics, prior to the rise in education, Japanese children represented one-third of the population, and today, they represent one in seven (Kumagai, 2016).
Over the past half century, almost every nation has seen a dramatic fall in their fertility rates. Population regulation differs through out the world based on the particular region. Populations can stabilize through a variety of factors including modern communications, growing affluence, urbanization, family planning and social reforms (Cunningham, 2013). China and the Indian state of Kerala are examples of two very different methods to controlling population expansion.
With the world running out of resources and struggling to sustain the recent boom in world population, governments around the world have been responding by trying to curb population growth with population programmes. Fertility Transition is a process whereby a country changes from a high birth rate to lower birth rate and is measured in terms of number of live births per 1000 women. This process usually occurs when a country is developing. Countries which are undergoing fertility transition in recent years have undergone a much more rapid transformation than when the present day developed economies underwent transition a couple hundred years ago. High fertility is often associated with poverty as there is a lack of education, healthcare and lack of sustainability within a country. The reasons which cause a country to experience fertility transition include; the changing of economy structure or economic growth, investment in education and the provision/subsidisation of contraception.
The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report breaks countries into one of four groups by demographics in accordance with what is referred to as the “first demographic dividend”. The first dividend is the first cycle of population change wherein a population’s demographics evolve. Specifically, the working-age population grows during the first demographic dividend. In the second dividend, the gains associated with the first dividend grow and must be maintained. The four types of demographic countries are pre-dividend, early-dividend, late-dividend, and post-dividend. Pre-dividend countries are those with fertility rates greater than four births per woman. Early-dividend countries are
The primary factor to higher fertility in developing countries to lower fertility in developed countries is the lower status of women. Developing countries follow traditional trends that everyone should get married, in fact, 98.2% of the Burundian population is married. (United Nations, 2012) Women of developing countries have less control over how many children they want to have versus how many children their husbands want to have. They do not have the independence of choosing unlike women in developed countries. In addition, Burundian society has a tendency to be in favor of males rather than females. For example, parents spend more resources on male offsprings rather than female offsprings in doctor visits, food, and education. When children of a particular family get sick, the parents would rather take the male offsprings to the doctors because male
Due to their marginal position on a biopoitically constructed hierarchy of otherness, labour migrants in Singapore often exist as a form of “bare life” (Agamben 1998); one constructed through biopolitical action, characterized by a lack of access to resources generally available to other demographics, and solidified through a restriction to safe, fulfilling, and free reproductive lives. While Singaporean society deems high-skilled and ethnic majority migrants as socially valuable, low-skilled labour migrants – who are largely uneducated, poor, and socially precarious – find their degree of reproductive agency acutely stratified. Thus, various structural barriers exist with regards to reproduction for migrants, many of which remain absent for the majority of Singapore 's
Another explanation for the decline in birth rates in the east after reunification is that, in the DDR, having a child authorized a woman to “obtain an apartment and attain independence from her parents” (Witte & Wagner, 1995). The east German government provided many benefits to parents, especially mothers; child care facilities were widely available to allow women to get jobs (Witte & Wagner, 1995). Life in West Germany was drastically different: women did not have kids until they had established a career. So, another explanation for the decline in fertility in the east is that women in the east are establishing a more western lifestyle. This shift is most likely because of the costs related to reunification, loss of some maternity benefits, the competitive labor market, and a double-digit unemployment rate (Witte & Wagner, 1995). This study, published in 1995, hypothesized that fertility rates in the east will even out and match those of the west by 2001 (Witte & Wagner, 1995).
Age specific fertility rate during 2001 to 2011 has significantly decline in all age groups in Uttar Pradesh. In the year 2001and
Compared to 2014, the total population of Singapore went up 1.2 %. It can be considered as the lowest rate during the last few years. The population of citizens increased 1% as the same as previous year. But the growth of non-residents population decreased to 2.1% from 2.9% in 2014. The rate of population growth in age of 65 is 6.5% and it shows that the percentage of older people becomes higher and higher (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2015). Lower death rate is also one of the reasons of growth population of developed countries. Higher production of food, improvement of health knowledge and higher medical technology maintain the rate of increasing aging population. Nowadays, people are trying to live longer and so many ideas come out to keep us healthy. Well cooked food and purified water creates a