Parliamentary reply by SM Teo Chee Hean on transnational couples with citizen or non-resident children

THIRTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE
WRITTEN ANSWER
TUESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2020

Ms Anthea Ong:

To ask the Prime Minister in each of the last five years, what is the number of families consisting of a Singaporean citizen married to a non-resident spouse, with (i) at least one citizen child and at least one non-resident child and (ii) at least one non-resident child respectively.

Answer

Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister):

The latest available estimate is from the General Household Survey, which was conducted in 2015. Based on the survey, there were an estimated 18,700 couples¹ comprising a Singapore Citizen (SC) married to a Non-Resident (NR) in 2015. Of these, around 1,200 couples had at least one NR child. By comparison, around 7,000 couples had at least one SC child². We currently do not have an estimate on the number of couples who have at least one SC child and at least one NR child living with them. From the Census of Population 2020 to be conducted this year, we will assess if we can obtain this data.

¹ The number of couples nationally is estimated from the sampled households that were surveyed.

² “Child” refers to children aged below 18 who are living in the same household as their parents.