At the time of the 1990 census, Singapore had a population of 2,705,115. The 2001 population estimate was 4,300,419. Immigration is highly restricted, so the natural population increase, which measures births and deaths, is an important indicator of the country’s future population growth. Singapore’s natural population increase is 0.9 percent annually, and this rate is expected to fall as much of the population ages beyond the childbearing years. The government is concerned about the slow growth rate because increasingly fewer working people must support a growing elderly population, straining available resources for health care and other social services. The government provides tax incentives to families that have several children, but the growth rate is still expected to fall because most Singaporeans prefer small families. The overall population density is 6,642 persons per sq km (17,202 per sq mi). Large residential areas with high-rise public housing estates are located throughout the main island, including the districts of Jurong in the southwest, and Geylang and Katong along the east coast.

The population of Singapore is diverse, the result of considerable past immigration. Chinese predominate, making up more than three-fourths of the total. Malays are the next largest ethnic group, and Indians the third. None of these three major communities is homogeneous. Among the Chinese, more than two-fifths originate from Fukien province and speak the Amoy dialect, about one-fourth are Teochew from the city of Swatow in Kwangtung province, and a smaller number are from other parts of Kwangtung. The Chinese community as a whole, therefore, speaks mutually incomprehensible dialects. Linguistic differences are less pronounced among the Malays, but the group includes Indonesians speaking Javanese, Boyanese, and other dialects. The Indian group is most diverse, consisting of Tamils (more than half), Malayalis, and Sikhs; it also includes Pakistani and Sinhalese communities.