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https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3194051/singapores-population-grows-number-residents-covid
Asia/ Southeast Asia

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
Tourists take pictures of the iconic Merlion statue in Singapore earlier this month. Photo: Xinhua

Singapore’s total population grew 3.4 per cent to 5.64 million as of June, after shrinking for two years amid the pandemic, as regional rival Hong Kong’s population dropped for a third straight 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.

The rise comes as Singapore’s government tries to attract rich foreigners and talented professionals to bolster the workforce with the country competing to become the top financial hub in Asia.

Hong Kong saw a decline of 121,500 residents as of June, marking the third straight year of declines and the biggest drop in at least six decades. Photo: Dickson Lee
Hong Kong saw a decline of 121,500 residents as of June, marking the third straight year of declines and the biggest drop in at least six decades. Photo: Dickson Lee

Comparatively, Hong Kong announced a population drop of 1.6 per cent in the year ended June 30 as it has struggled with an outflow of people fleeing strict Covid-19 restrictions that have hobbled the city as most other regions move on from the pandemic.

Hong Kong saw a decline of 121,500 residents as of June, leaving the population at about 7.29 million, according to government data released last month – marking the third straight year of declines and the biggest drop in at least six decades. A wide-reaching national security law may have also been a contributing factor.

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.

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.

In his research, he found that many foreign firms probably scaled back their presence in Hong Kong due to social unrest in 2019, the national security law, and rising US-China tensions, while Covid-19 restrictions crushed economic growth and discouraged travel.

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.

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Last year, Singapore’s non-resident population shrunk to its lowest level in 10 years, as travel curbs coupled with a slowing economy and a tightened stance towards employing foreign labour began to bite.

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.

Hong Kong – which saw its population swell in the post-war era amid waves of mass migration from the mainland – has only seen a few instances of decline since 1961. The overall population shrank by 0.2 per cent amid an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome and protests against an earlier security law in the 2002-03 period, for instance.

However, recent declines have swollen amid the city’s tight pandemic controls that have included stringent social distancing measures, isolating infected residents in government-run quarantine camps and imposing flight bans on countries including the United States and Britain.

Hong Kong has since lifted many of its restrictions, including a three-day hotel quarantine requirement for arrivals, although travellers are still required to monitor themselves for potential Covid-19 infections for a week after they land and take multiple PCR and RAT tests. Mask wearing is also still mandatory, including outdoors.

The city’s campaign against dissent following Beijing’s imposition of a security law in June 2020, which raised questions about the “one country, two systems” framework that underpins the former British colony’s financial centre, could have also contributed to the population decline.

Some Hong Kong residents with foreign passports or those with relatives overseas have sought to relocate recently – especially to the UK, which opened up a pathway to citizenship for holders of British National (Overseas) passports.

Both Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as other Asian societies such as South Korea and Japan, are experiencing an ageing trend and have increasingly resorted to family subsidies as a way of sustaining economic growth and preventing further demographic decline.

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.

Singapore’s fertility rates are among the lowest in the world. It has sparked conversations on societal shifts that need to take place to reintegrate and cater to senior citizens.

“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.