Population planning in Singapore has reflected various policies to both slow and boost the growth rate of Singapore's population. Singapore first began population planning initiatives in an attempt to slow and reverse the rapid increase in births that began after World War II. Later on, from the 1980s, policy was tailored towards growth, attempting to encourage mothers to have more children. In 2020, the annual total population growth rate in Singapore was −0.3%, and its resident total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.10, below the replacement rate of 2.1. In 2023, it further declined to 0.97. In 2025, the TFR reached a historic low of 0.87.
The first phase started with the launch of the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board in 1966 to aggressively promote family planning after Singapore faced "post-war food and housing shortages". SFPPB targeted low-socioeconomic status individuals, particularly females, and worked to encourage contraceptive use, such as condoms and birth control. The SFPPB advocated for small families, establishing the "Stop-at-Two" program, which encouraged and benefited two-child families and subsequent sterilisation. SFPPB also opened more clinics to improve the health and welfare of families. Aside from encouraging small families, policies set in place by the government during the "Stop-at Two" era de-incentivized having more than two children; civil workers were not paid for maternity leave after their second child, children's hospital fees were higher for third and subsequent children, top school choices were given to only children with parents who had been sterilized before the age of 40, and sterilization itself was rewarded with seven days of paid leave.
The government program "Stop-at-Two" was successful in achieving limited growth, but it is also attributed to the initial decline of Singapore's population. Following the "Stop-at-Two" campaigns, population planning has taken the form of attempts to reverse falling birth rates. The Singaporean government eventually became pro-natalist, and officially announced its replacement "Have-Three-or-More (if you can afford it)" campaign in 1987, where the government began to encourage and incentivize larger families for financially-stable families. Additionally, the Social Development Unit (SDU) was established in 1984 to promote marriage and romance between educated individuals. This second phase of population planning has been unsuccessful at reaching and maintaining the replacement rate.
Limiting growth
Post war baby boom Following World War II's end in 1945, the growth of Singapore's population was assessed to be unsustainable for its economic prospects; there were about 1 million born between the years of 1947 and 1964, with total live births increasing by 58%.
During this period, the average annual growth rate was 4.4%, of which 1% was due to immigration. Singapore experienced its highest birth rate in 1957 at 42.7 per thousand individuals. The associated risks of overpopulation, including resource depletion, environmental degradation, heightened unemployment, and increased costs of living, prompted the government's growth-culling response.
Overcrowding concerns At the time of independence, many Singaporeans living in the Central Area lived in overcrowded shophouses. In 1947, the British Housing Committee Report noted Singapore had "one of the world's worst slums – 'a disgrace to a civilised community'", and the average person per building density was 18.2 by 1947. Rapid population growth was perceived as a threat to "political stability and living standards". Such a trend would lead to population overcrowding, which was thought to overwhelm employment opportunities and social services in education, health, and sanitation. These concerns lead also to the replacement of the Singapore Improvement Trust with the Housing and Development Board to provide resettlement en masse for Singapore's overcrowded population.
Despite their fall since 1957, birth rates in the 1960s were still perceived as high. On average, a baby was born every 11 minutes in 1965; Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH) – a women's hospital where most babies in Singapore were delivered – saw over 100 deliveries per day in 1962. In 1966, KKH delivered 39,835 babies, earning it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for "largest number of births in a single maternity facility" each year for ten years. Because there was generally a massive shortage of beds in that era, mothers with routine deliveries were discharged from hospitals within 24 hours.
Introduction of family planning Family planning was introduced to Singapore in 1949 by a group of volunteers led by activist Constance Goh. The loose association of volunteers eventually became the Family Planning Association of Singapore and established numerous sexual health clinics offering contraception, treatments for minor gynaecological ailments, and marital advice. Until the 1960s, there was no legislated government policy in family planning, but the postwar British colonial administration and the following Singaporean government provided grants and land for its facilities network for the association. This cooperation culminated in 1960 with a three-month nationwide family planning campaign that was jointly conducted by the Association and government. The population growth rate slowed from 4–5% per year in the 1950s to around 2.5% in 1965 around independence. The birth rate had fallen to 29.5 per thousand individuals, and the natural growth rate had fallen to 2.5%.
Singapore's population expansion can be seen in the graph below:
+ Population growth 1947–2000 Period Growth 1947–1957 84.7% 1957–1970 90.8% 1970–1980 13.3% 1980–1990 18.5% 1990–2000 20.6% 2000–2010 40.9%
Singapore Family Planning and Population Board In 1959, the People's Action Party came to power in the first election following the granting of Singapore's internal autonomy. In September 1965 the Minister of Health, Yong Nyuk Lin, submitted a white paper to Parliament, recommending a Five-year Mass Family Planning programme that would reduce the birth rate to 20.0 per thousand individuals by 1970. This initiative became known as the National Family Programme. A year later in 1966, the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board (SFPPB) was established based on the findings of the white paper, providing clinical services and public education on family planning. Initially allocated a budget of $1 million SGD for the entire programme, the SFPPB faced a resistant population, but eventually serviced over 156,000. The Family Planning Association of Singapore was absorbed into the activities of the SFPPB.
Stop-at-Two
In the late 1960s, Singapore was a developing nation and had not yet undergone the demographic transition; though birth rates fell from 1957 to 1970. In 1970, birth rates rose as women who were themselves the product of the postwar baby boom reached maturity. Fearing that Singapore's growing population might overburden the developing economy, Lee started a vigorous Stop at Two family planning campaign. Abortion and sterilisation were legalised in 1970, and women were urged to get sterilised after their second child.
The government also added a gradually increasing array of incentives and disincentives between 1968 and 1973, penalising parents for having more than two children, raising the per-child costs of each additional child: In 1968 with the Employment Bill, female employees would not receive maternity leave for their fourth child or any subsequent children; In April 1969, the accouchement fee of $10 charged at Government Maternity Hospitals was raised to $50 after the 3rd baby; In 1972, these measures were introduced: The incentives: Waiver of delivery charges in Government maternity hospitals for women who undergo sterilisation after delivery. For ward C-class patients who have undergone sterilisation, the ward charges are remitted. Government delivery charges are also waived if the husband undergoes sterilisation within a month after the wife delivered child. Patients undergoing sterilisation are granted medical leave on generous terms. The disincentives: Delivery charges in Government Hospitals increase with each additional child. No paid maternity leave is given for delivery of the fourth child and subsequent children. No priority is given to large families in the allocation of Housing and Development Board flats. Updates to these earlier measures were announced and debated in Singapore Parliament on 24 October 1972 and came into effect on 1 August 1973: Reduction of income tax relief to cover only the first three children; Reduction of paid maternity leave from three to two confinements; Lowering the priority for allocation of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats for bigger families. Two or less have highest priority, four or more would have little priority; Progressive increment of childbirth fees charged in government hospitals based on birth order. These fees are waived if the man or woman underwent sterilisation; Accouchement fees A Ward B Ward C Ward1st Child250100502nd Child300150753rd Child3501501004th Child4002502005th Child400300 Third or fourth children were given lower priorities in education; Top priority in top-tier primary schools would be given only to children whose parents had been sterilised before the age of forty.
The Singapore Family Planning and Population Board created a large array of public education material for the Stop-at-Two campaign, in one of the early examples of the public social engineering campaigns the government would continue to implement (Speak Mandarin, Speak Good English, National Courtesy, Keep Singapore Clean and Toilet Flushing Campaigns) that would lead to its reputation as "paternalistic" and "interventionist" in social affairs. The "Stop at Two" media campaign from 1970 to 1976 was led by Basskaran Nair, press section head of the Ministry of Culture, and created posters with lasting legacy: a 2008 Straits Times article wrote, "many middle-aged Singaporeans will remember the poster of two cute girls sharing an umbrella and an apple: The umbrella fit two nicely. Three would have been a crowd." This same poster was also referred to in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's 2008 National Day Rally speech. Many other posters from the "iconic" campaign included similar themes of being content with two girls, to combat the common trend in developing Asian societies for families with only daughters to continue "trying for a boy".
In addition to promoting just having two children, the government encouraged individuals to delay having their second child and to marry late, reinforcing the inevitable demographic transition. Other slogans and campaign material exhorted Singaporeans with such messages as: "Small Families – Brighter Future: Two is enough" (this message captioned a photo of two young girls) "The second can wait" (a mother and father are seen as being happy with one child) "Teenage marriage means rushing into problems: A happy marriage is worth waiting for" "One, Two: And that's ideal: Sterilisation, the best method for Family Limitation" (shown with a cartoon of two girls' faces) "Take your time to say 'yes'" Small Family: Brighter Future "Please stop at two!" (a stork carries a four-member nuclear family)