Singapore’s population grows as number of residents in Covid-battered Hong Kong declines for third straight year
- The rise comes as Singapore tries to attract rich foreigners and talented professionals to bolster its workforce and become Asia’s top financial hub
- Employment opportunity patterns underscore the regional rivals’ diverging fortunes. Hundreds of finance professionals left Hong Kong last year
The number of Singaporean citizens rose 1.6 per cent to 3.55 million while the non-resident population, including workers and students, climbed 6.6 per cent, according to the city state’s Department of Statistics.
A government statement last month attributed the population drop to the “continued impact of Covid-19” as well as “stringent border control and quarantine measures” that caused “severe interruption of cross-boundary travel”. The inflow of people into Hong Kong has “remained at a low level”, it added.
Singapore Airlines named world’s No 2 carrier. Cathay Pacific tumbles to 16th
More than 700 finance professionals moved to Singapore from Hong Kong last year, according to recruitment firm Robert Walters.
Employment opportunity patterns in Singapore and Hong Kong underscore their diverging fortunes, Francis Chan of Bloomberg Intelligence said.
Singapore had 126,600 job vacancies in June compared with 50,000 at the end of 2019, with Hong Kong’s contracting to 54,000 from about 63,000 over the same period.
The government’s midyear report also showed that Singapore continues to get older, as the median age in the city state increased to 42.1 years from 41.8 years for residents. One in four people in the city state will be at least 65 years old by 2030, putting more pressure on healthcare and social spending.
Plug Hong Kong’s brain drain or Singapore will poach top talent, experts warn
Social egg freezing: can it help boost Singapore’s flagging birth rate?
Singapore’s government will be challenged with a different set of expenditures in coming budgets. The old-age support ratio, residents aged 20 to 64 years per those 65 and above, fell to its lowest ever at 3.8 in June 2022, and is projected to fall further to 2.7 in 2030, according to the Singapore Population in Brief 2022.
A continuous push towards skill upgrading and re-skilling, the attraction of foreign talent, as well as the leveraging of technology and the digital economy should help mitigate some of the impact, said Selena Ling Siew Sing, head of Treasury Research & Strategy at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
“As a small city state that relies on our people as a key resource, the ageing trend and its implications will hit us even more acutely,” the government’s report said.