Speech by Minister Indranee Rajah on Population at the Committee of Supply Debate 2026

26 FEB 2026

Introduction

As DPM indicated earlier, our preliminary resident TFR for 2025 was 0.87, lower than 0.97 in 2024. It is our lowest TFR to date. Resident births across all ethnic groups decreased, with the decrease in Chinese births being proportionately larger, at a drop of 15% compared to 2024. This is due in part to the typical post-Dragon Year decrease.

The declining TFR means our citizen population growth has slowed. This is an existential challenge for us.

Trying to raise our TFR has always been a priority but with the latest figures, this has acquired a new urgency. The Government is wholly committed to addressing this issue head on and we will spare no effort to arrest and reverse this decline. However, this cannot be the work of Government alone. We need all of society to play their part.

To ensure that our plans are targeted and effective, we must first understand the drivers and factors that are inhibiting marriage and family formation.

Falling TFR – A Global Issue

Declining TFR is not an issue unique to just Singapore. It is a global phenomenon. All over the world, more people are choosing to remain single or marry later, and those who marry are choosing to have fewer or no children at all.

As PM pointed out earlier today, this issue is not simply economic. Some countries have spent a lot on a whole range of support schemes. Others provide very generous welfare systems. These measures can help at the margins. But they have not fundamentally reversed the trend.

Countries like France and the Nordic countries, which have long been held up as exemplars of higher TFR, continue to see declines in their birth rates. In China, the number of deaths now exceed the number of births. Even in the region, the TFRs of Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are on the downtrend. South Korea, which currently has the world’s lowest TFR, recently saw an increase in marriages and births. This could be due in part to the large cohort of children born to South Korea’s Baby Boomers who are now entering childbearing age. It remains to be seen if their recent more family-friendly policies will have a lasting impact. However, it still gives us hope that fertility trends could shift and sustained efforts across multiple fronts may yield results over time.

But what is really striking is if you look at the TFR of cities. As a city-state, Singapore's TFR may be more comparable to that of other metropolitan cities rather than other countries. In fact, the TFR of major cities tend to be much lower than their countries’ overall TFR. In 2024:

  • France’s TFR was 1.62 but Paris’s was 1.27.

  • Japan’s TFR was 1.15 but Tokyo’s was 0.96.

  • China’s TFR was around 1.00 but Hong Kong’s was 0.84 and Shanghai’s was less than 0.8.

Without over-generalising, cities typically have a faster, more intense pace of life, and greater competition and stress. As a small city-state, Singapore experiences these effects more acutely. This is reflected in our Marriage and Parenthood surveys, where besides financial cost, other concerns such as the stress of raising children and difficulties in managing work and family demands are the most common reasons cited by married respondents when considering whether to have children. But there are other factors at play too.

To unpack this further, I engaged various groups of Singaporeans at different life stages to hear their thoughts on this issue. Today, and today I would like to share with you what I learnt from them.

First, there are the singles. The Millennials and Gen Zs shared that dating, and marriage often took a backseat to their many other interests and goals. Some wanted to establish themselves in their careers before seeking a life partner. Others were looking for the right marriage partner but had yet to find the right person. Many shared they were looking for deeper and more meaningful connections but sometimes had difficulty meeting others and forging authentic in-person relationships after leaving school and entering the workforce.

Next, there were those who are married but hesitant to have children. This group felt anxious about becoming parents. They were worried about not being able to live up to the expectations of being a good parent. Some feared that having children meant trading off their careers and other life goals. Others were concerned about the financial, emotional and mental demands of parenthood. And some women were anxious about how they would cope with the physical and emotional changes that come with pregnancy.

Next, there were the married, want children but have fertility issues. On the flip side, these were married couples who very much wanted children but were unable to conceive. They spoke candidly about the challenges encountered in their fertility journey, including only realising the problem very late, not knowing where to get help, the fear of stigma, limited workplace support and difficulty in getting time off for fertility treatments, and the cost of fertility treatments.

Then we have the parents with young children. Without exception, everyone in this group spoke about the joy their children had brought to their lives. They did not sugarcoat the challenges and sacrifices of parenthood but when they weighed these against the love and happiness they experienced, they were glad they had chosen to have children. However, they also expressed their hope for more support for families, and better balance between work and family responsibilities. This was especially so for those caring for both young children and ageing parents.

A Marriage and Parenthood Reset

If we are to change our trajectory, these are the issues we must tackle. They cannot be addressed by policy measures alone. What we need is a Marriage and Parenthood Reset – by which I mean a reset across society on the following:

  • How marriage and parenthood are viewed and supported;

  • Second, how workplaces can evolve to better align work and family; and

  • Third, how everyone can play their part.

To achieve this, we will form a new Workgroup with the relevant agencies to look into these issues holistically, and engage widely across members of the public, businesses and the people sector. I will chair this Workgroup and will share more details in due course.

But for now, let me set out the broad 4-pronged approach that we will take:

  • First, we will build on current efforts to enhance government support for marriage and parenthood;

  • Second, we will cultivate positive mindsets about marriage and parenthood;

  • Third, we will work with employers to foster workplace cultures and practices that are family friendly; and

  • Fourth, we will engage the whole of society in this effort.

Building On Current Efforts

On the first one, the Government will build on current efforts to enhance support for marriage and parenthood. In recent years, we have significantly enhanced our Marriage and Parenthood Package. These include:

  • The Enhanced Baby Bonus Scheme and MediSave Grant for Newborns;

  • Doubling Paternity Leave and making it mandatory;

  • The new 10-week Shared Parental Leave (SPL);

  • The Large Families Scheme (LFS); and

  • This year, we will provide another $500 of Child LifeSG Credits for every Singaporean child aged 12 and below.

Going forward we will do more.

Mr Shawn Loh, Mr Andre Low and Ms Hany Soh raised concerns and gave suggestions about the costs of raising children. The Government is committed to helping parents with the cost of child-raising. Four years ago, parents received up to $32,000 per child under the Baby Bonus Scheme and MediSave Grant for Newborns. Today, with the addition of the Large Families Scheme, it is up to $54,000 per child. On the education front, every Singaporean child can receive over $200,000 in subsidies from preschool through to secondary school. We will look into enhancing this further and consider the different ideas that Members have suggested.

On housing, as Mr David Hoe raised in his Budget Debate speech and as Ms Hany Soh highlighted, we will enable couples who are ready to build a life together to secure and afford their own home.

We are increasing the supply of Build-To-Order or BTO flats, with more shorter waiting time or SWT flats so couples and young families can get their flats more quickly. MND has also reviewed how it can better support growing families who may need more space, and we will share more at the MND COS.

For preschool and caregiving, MSF has progressively lowered fee caps at Government-supported preschools and expanded preschool places. These moves have improved accessibility and affordability.

In Budget 2026, PM announced that the income thresholds for preschool and student care subsidies will be revised so more families can benefit. Government agencies are also undertaking a review of the student care sector to better meet the caregiving needs of families with primary school-aged children.

On work-life support, while take-up rates for the new Shared Parental Leave scheme are not yet available, initial feedback from parents has been positive. They appreciate being able to spend more time with their newborns. Some said this has encouraged them to consider having another child.

But we know that beyond infancy, parents require additional time-off from work to care for their children. Many parents and Members in this House like Ms Valerie Lee and Mr David Hoe have asked for more childcare leave. Ms Lee Hui Ying also asked how we can better support the sandwich generation who are caring for their children as well as their ageing parents or other family dependents.

We will study the childcare leave suggestions carefully, bearing in mind the needs of employers, who are still adjusting to the recent parental leave enhancements.

Even without any legislated requirement, many progressive employers have stepped up to introduce caregiving-related leave provisions, as part of their strategy to attract and retain talent, such as adopting the Tripartite Standard on Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs. Beyond leave, Flexible Work Arrangements or FWAs are another sustainable way to provide employees with greater flexibility in meeting their diverse caregiving needs.

We also want to better support parents as they re-enter the workforce after taking a career break, as Mr Mark Lee and Ms Elysa Chen highlighted.

Today, these parents can tap on broad-based employment facilitation and skills training as well as career guidance programmes, such as the Workforce Singapore’s Mid-Career Pathways Programme and Career Conversion Programmes, to gain industry-relevant skills and support their transition into suitable job roles.

The Government is also helping companies redesign jobs through initiatives like the Enterprise Workforce Transformation Package. Such support can help lower the barrier of re-entry for caregivers who wish to return to the workforce, by helping companies strengthen organisational capability to offer more adaptable workforce models, including various forms of FWAs for employees. MOM is also reviewing how we can better support job fractionalisation under the Tripartite Workgroup on Senior Employment. Having more fractionalised jobs will be helpful to parents seeking part-time work.

Another important area spoken about is fertility health, as highlighted by several Members earlier. Later marriages and births are becoming more common. In 2024, the median age of mothers at first birth was around 32 years old. As both male and female fertility declines with age, more couples may face fertility challenges. Today, about 1 in 6 people globally experience infertility.1

Many don’t know where to seek help or are fearful of stigma attached to doing so.

To help those with fertility issues we will work with other agencies to:

  • Raise awareness of fertility health, including improving accessibility of information on existing support, encouraging fertility checks, and normalising the seeking of medical attention to fertility issues. Those in need can refer to the Made For Families website2 for current support measures;

  • Review the financial and non-financial support couples receive throughout their fertility journeys; and

  • Work with employers to improve workplace support for employees undergoing fertility treatments. For a start, I encourage employers and HR departments to refer to the Workplace Fertility Support Guide produced by Fertility Support SG3, which Ms Cassandra Lee highlighted.

On Ms Valerie Lee’s suggestion on support through miscarriages, psychosocial support like counselling is available in public healthcare institutions. And We agree that more can be done, and will study her suggestions to see how we can better support those who experienced miscarriages. On Ms Elysa Chen’s suggestion to enhance postpartum support for parents, there are ongoing initiatives at the public maternity hospitals and polyclinics to provide perinatal and postpartum support, such as scheduled telephone check-ins and follow-ups post-discharge. Mothers who require breastfeeding and lactation support can tap on services offered in polyclinics, such as the Breastfeeding Triple Support @NUHS polyclinics. They can also visit Family Nexus sites to find out more about parent-child bonding programmes and parenting support services. To identify women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus for timely management, the Agency for Care Effectiveness (ACE) has also updated the ACE Clinical Guideline to help healthcare professionals to assess the onset of pre-diabetes or diabetes post-partum.

Mr Foo Cexiang also highlighted in his Budget Debate speech the need to better support adoptive parents. Today, adoptive parents receive benefits like biological parents, such as parental leave provisions. Nonetheless, we recognise that more can be done to improve and streamline the adoption processes and we will work with agencies to look into this.

The areas I just shared are part of the Government’s broader efforts to better support Singaporeans through their marriage and parenthood journey. Besides consultations that the Workgroup will have with members of the public, businesses and the people sector, we will also enhance our Marriage and Parenthood Survey this year to gain deeper insights on how attitudes and perceptions towards marriage and parenthood have evolved. The feedback and suggestions will inform the Workgroup’s recommendations and shape the next bound of marriage and parenthood enhancements.

Cultivating Positive Mindsets about Marriage & Parenthood

Next, we will cultivate positive mindsets towards marriage and parenthood.

Decisions on whether to get married and start a family are deeply personal. And as we have found in our engagements, mindsets matter a great deal when making these decisions.

When we say we want to change mindsets, it is not about pushing a single “correct” path. Rather, as Ms Nadia Samdin shared, it is about creating an environment where decisions surrounding marriage and parenthood can be viewed optimistically and positively, rather than with fear and anxiety.

Mindset change has many aspects. But let me touch on two.

Mindset #1: That Parenthood Represents a Net Loss

There was a marked difference in mindsets between those who were still weighing whether or not to have children and those who had already decided to have children. Those who were hesitant looked at parenthood through the lens of what they might lose – being held back in their careers, inability to pursue other life goals, and loss of personal freedom. Those with children or intending to have them, on the other hand, saw parenthood in terms of what they gained – the joy of family, and the fulfilment and personal growth that come with being parents.

In reality, finding a life partner, getting married and starting a family are major milestones that require time, energy, and change. It is understandable and rightfully so, that entering into these commitments should be carefully considered. However, many Singaporean couples have demonstrated that having family and careers can co-exist alongside other life goals.

Parenthood does take real effort and commitment, and while there will inevitably be compromises along the way, what is gained in terms of family relationships, love and fulfilment is both precious and priceless. We hope that as many Singaporeans as possible can experience the joys of marriage and parenthood. Ultimately it is a personal choice. But we need a mindset change, to encourage couples to consider a more balanced picture when exercising this choice.

Mindset #2. Perfect Parenting and the Education Arms Race

In our engagements, another prevailing mindset was the immense pressure couples put on themselves to be “the perfect parent”. One young father, a doctor, felt guilty that he could not spend more time with his son because of his work schedule. He felt he was not being a good father. Another young woman, newly-wed, was hesitant to have a child because she was not sure if she could provide the best possible resources to ensure that her child would succeed in life.

Wanting more time to spend with your children or providing them with the right resources stem from good intentions. However, in hindsight, many parents reflected that parenthood was not about providing the best for their children or having all the answers right from the very start. Rather, it was about being willing to learn, adapt and grow alongside their children, doing the best they can within their circumstances, and relying on community support where possible, as Ms Nadia Samdin noted.

For instance, the Families for Life Parents Telegram groups have enabled thriving online communities of parents within each local town. Through these local networks, parents can connect and exchange parenting tips, share about local family events, and exchange pre-loved items, with other parents in the community to help them better navigate parenting challenges.

Practical resources and programmes to support families on their parenting journey from birth to growing through adolescence are also available on platforms, including HPB’s Parent Hub, the Parenting For Wellness Toolbox, parenting resources in MOE’s Parent’s Gateway and the Families for Life Parenting website. We will work with various agencies and partners to regularly update and refine the resources on the platforms, to ensure they meet parents’ evolving needs.

This pressure to be the perfect parent is perhaps most evident in the child’s education. Many parents feel pressure to help their children excel academically, for fear that they may otherwise not succeed in life. They worry about coaching their children for major exams, or finding the financial means to send their children to private tuition and enrichment programmes. If they are unable to do so, they feel that they have fallen short as parents.

I understand that this pressure largely stems from the fear that there is only a narrow gate to success and if their children do not make it through that gate, they will have poor life outcomes. These are real anxieties that we want to help address.

To cater to students’ varied abilities and talents and help our children develop more holistically, MOE has been making progressive changes over the years to develop multiple pathways. MOE has also made multiple shifts to reduce over-emphasis on academic results. MOE will also conduct a series of Education Conversations with students, parents, educators, researchers, and academics to explore ways to mitigate the education “arms race”, including by reducing the stakes of examinations.

But these structural reforms will only work if cultural attitudes towards competition and success shift in tandem. We must move away from viewing education in Singapore as a competition for limited prizes and instead see it as an open highway with many lanes and many different prizes suited to each child’s unique talents and abilities.

Parents who have high expectations of their children's academic performance may urge them to achieve good grades or over-react when they fall short of expectations, but such actions may cause unintended consequences, as a National University of Singapore study found in 2016. Children with intrusive parents tended to be overly critical of themselves and were at increased risk of developing depression and anxiety symptoms. Such pressure can therefore be detrimental to the child’s well-being.

Some competition and stress is natural but we should do our best to remove unrealistic expectations or social pressures which add unnecessary stress on parenthood.

Working with employers to foster family-friendly workplaces

Third, we will work with employers to foster family-friendly workplace cultures and practices.

As Ms Yeo Wan Ling noted, one of the top stressors for parents is trying to achieve a balance between work and family responsibilities. One parent described how frequent work travel made it difficult for her to be there for her children in their formative years. But not travelling would affect her career; Some found it difficult to request for Flexible Work Arrangements, despite the Tripartite Guidelines; Others related having to choose between being present for important meetings or their child’s key milestones, and difficulty in leaving work on time to pick their children up from childcare. Despite the mandatory leave provisions we have introduced and employment protections, we still hear anecdotes of how some employees are subtly discouraged from taking leave or how female employees are nudged to resign once they are pregnant.

We fully recognise that employers have business objectives and financial bottom lines to meet. However, there is much more we can do to build progressive workplace cultures to align business priorities with family-friendly practices.

Having supportive employers and workplaces makes a big difference to parents. But being a family-friendly workplace is not just good for employees, it also makes good business sense. When people feel supported at work, they are more motivated, more engaged and more likely to stay.

An example is Mr Edmund Seah, whose employer allowed him to take his paternity leave in weekly blocks. Edmund took two weeks during his child’s first month to support his wife’s confinement and took the remaining two weeks of paternity leave together with his three weeks of Shared Parental Leave. This flexibility allowed him to be present for his wife and baby when it mattered. Having benefitted from this flexibility, Mr Seah has paid it forward by covering his colleague’s workload when she went on maternity leave.

There was also a Straits Times article last month on Hsinchu City in Taiwan. It houses Hsinchu Science Park and is often known as the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. While Taiwan’s TFR is projected to have fallen below 0.8 in 2025, Hsinchu’s has stayed stable at 1.0 for several years. Experts attribute the higher birth rates to more family-friendly benefits provided by employers, rather than the Government, to attract and retain the best employees in a competitive environment. These include hybrid work arrangements, on-site babycare, baby bonuses and hampers for employees with newborns. This sends a strong signal that having children is supported and encouraged, and will not be negative for one’s career.

There are many other ways in which employers can be supportive, such as providing lactation rooms for nursing mothers, instituting systematic covering arrangements when an employee has to take time-off, and holding regular dialogues with employees on how the workplace can be improved. I fully agree with Ms Cassandra Lee on the importance of investing in HR as they shape workplace norms and culture, and support the last-mile implementation of family-friendly workplace practices, so that employees can feel safe and supported to use these provisions. The IHRP Body of Competencies already includes a key component of holistic well-being which entails HR’s ability to drive best practices that support employees to thrive, such as the design of flexible work options and family-related leave.

We want a family-friendly workplace culture to become part of the DNA of all local companies. It should also be a shared responsibility – from senior management and HR managers, to line managers, co-workers and parent-employees themselves.

We will continue to review ways to foster workplace cultures and societal norms that value and support families, including Mr Haresh Singaraju’s suggestion of piloting a tiered workplace certification.

Engaging the Whole of Society

Beyond workplaces, we will encourage neighbourhoods, communities, and businesses to be supportive of families. There are ground-up efforts to create conducive community spaces for families. The Caterpillar Library at the Taman Jurong Community Club established by the Ong family is one such example, where residents donate a book for every book they take. Starting out with just 100 books, the Caterpillar Library has now facilitated the circulation of over 10,000 books, creating connections between neighbours while helping children discover the joy of reading. I encourage more neighbourhoods to create such family-friendly spaces. Community organisations and businesses also contribute by organising a wide range of activities – from the arts to sports – for families. The Families for Life website provides a list of such resources for families, and most of the activities are free or charge nominal fees. In addition, Families for Life has gathered corporate partners like GetGo, Sofitel Singapore Sentosa and ABC Cooking Studio to offer Large Families Deals with exclusive discounts and offers. I encourage more partners to come onboard to celebrate families.

Conclusion

Mr Chairman, in conclusion, the latest TFR figures have not deterred us from our quest to boost marriage and parenthood. If anything, it underscores the urgency of the task before us, and has made us even more determined to turn things around. The Government will redouble our efforts to address this existential challenge.

However, to buck the trend, everyone – parents, employers, businesses and community partners – needs to be part of this endeavour. In the months ahead, we will work with stakeholders to develop concrete plans for the 4-pronged approach I laid out earlier. We welcome all suggestions and fresh ideas on how we can better support Singaporeans’ marriage and parenthood aspirations. Thank you.

1 https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2023-1-in-6-people-globally-affected-by-infertility

2 https://www.madeforfamilies.gov.sg/

3 https://fertilitysupport.sg/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/FSS-workplace-support-guide.pdf

4 https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chips-powerhouse-hsinchu-a-bright-spot-amid-taiwans-birth-rate-crisis