Parliamentary Reply by Minister Indranee Rajah on Immigration Intake and Citizenship Reporting

FIFTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE

WRITTEN REPLY 

THURSDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2025

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis:

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) what demographic statistics other than the total fertility rate are being used to determine the intended intake of new Permanent Residents (PRs) and citizens; (b) whether the change in reporting Chart 17 in Population in Brief 2025 reflects a change in the intake determination methodology; and (c) if so, what is the expected impact on future intake determinations.

Ms Indranee Rajah (for the Prime Minister):

Our intake of Permanent Residents and citizens takes into account several factors. Apart from our total fertility rate, we also consider other demographic indicators such as life expectancy and age profile of our population. Our intake also varies on an annual basis depending on the number and quality of applications we receive.

Starting from the publication of the Population in Brief 2025, we have excluded citizenships granted by descent from being reported as part of the total number of citizenships granted. This is to more accurately reflect immigration inflows, since citizenship by descent is a constitutional entitlement for children born overseas to at least one Singaporean parent. It is akin to how children born in Singapore to Singaporean parents are constitutionally entitled to citizenship by birth. The number of citizenships by descent granted will continue to be reported under the Marriage and Parenthood section of the Population in Brief, and is also available on other open sources such as the Department of Statistics’ SingStat Table Builder.

This is a technical change in reporting and our intake methodology has not changed.