ABSTRACT
Introduction Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) fell to 1.26 children per woman in 2003 and has since hovered at about this level. This decline to below 1.3 births per woman has been an unprecedented development and it places the country squarely among those with the “lowest-low” fertility, as defined by Kohler and his colleagues (Kohler et al. 2002). This development has taken place in spite of Government effort to raise the fertility rate through pro-natalist, pro-family policy measures. Following Kohler et al. (2002), this chapter examines the demographic and socioeconomic conditions that underlie “lowest-low” fertility in Singapore (referred to as “ultra-low fertility” in this book to avoid the impression that fertility could go no lower).
