Twenty-seven thousand five hundred births in one year, the lowest number ever recorded in Singapore. The fertility rate fell to 0.87 children per woman in 2025, a tenth less than the 0.97 in 2024 and a far cry from the 1.24 of ten years ago, as Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong announced in parliament in February. Without corrections, Gan warned, the population of Singaporeans will begin to shrink by the early 2040s. It is against this backdrop that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced, during his traditional National Day speech on 23 August, the largest family support package in recent years. It is called the SG Child Support Package and according to the official press release from the National Population and Talent Division it replaces the two previous schemes, the Baby Bonus and the Large Families Scheme, with a single system that is the same for each child, regardless of birth order.
How the new support works
The package is worth up to 62 thousand Singapore dollars per child, distributed in several installments up to the age of 17: a “baby gift” of 10 thousand dollars within the first year of life, then 32 thousand dollars in “child credits” paid out at 2 thousand dollars a year from the first to the sixteenth birthday, a contribution of 5 thousand dollars to the Child Development Account and up to 5 thousand dollars of state co-financing on the same account, finally a payment of $10,000 in post-secondary education fund when child reaches age 17. By adding these amounts to the already existing benefits (the health contribution of 5 thousand dollars at birth and the Edusave funds throughout their schooling), each Singaporean child will receive a total of around 70 thousand dollars in direct support, equal to around 47 thousand euros at current exchange rates. Large families, with three or more children, are not losing ground: in addition to the common basis for all children, they will continue to receive additional aid on health costs, transport and housing, with the details to be defined in the coming months.
Longer leaves and cheaper daycare
The plan is not limited to cash transfers. Childcare leaves, currently set at six days per year per parent, will rise to 8, 10 or 12 days depending on whether the family has one, two or three or more children under 12, and the State will reimburse the full cost of these leaves to companies, which until now had to cover part of the first weeks. The chapter on nursery schools is also changing: full-time fees in affiliated institutions will progressively decrease to 150 dollars a month for nursery school and 300 for nursery school, with the aim of reaching these levels by 2030 – less than half the current rates. Those with a lower income will still pay lower amounts. Furthermore, from 2027, families with children will have an additional chance in the draw for the allocation of BTO public housing.
A problem that has lasted for decades
It is not the first time that Singapore has tried to correct course and for years the People’s Action Party government, in power since 1965, has alternated birth bonuses and leave extensions without the birth rate rising steadily. Minister Indranee Rajah, who chairs the inter-ministerial working group on the topic, spoke of “significant change in the way the government supports families”, while admitting that no single measure will be enough on its own. Meanwhile, the city-state has already become a “super-elderly” society according to United Nations standards, a threshold that Health Minister Ong Ye Kung confirmed had been reached last March, with over a fifth of the population over 65.
