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REVIEW OF SAW SWEE-HOCK’S THE POPULATION OF SINGAPORE Cheryl Sim
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The third edition of Saw Swee Hock’s book, “The Population of Singapore”, is the latest version of Saw’s comprehensive work on population trends in Singapore. The book is a trove of information on the country’s demographic trends, gathered from the 1800s to the present. In this updated version, “The Population of Singapore” features the demographic developments and population concerns that have arisen in Singapore since the second edition was published in 2007. Of particular significance is the inclusion of findings from the country’s 2010 census. In the book, Saw covers three broad categories of population issues. First, the book offers a broad perspective of the country’s demographic composition and population structure. It then looks at population growth through the lenses of marriage, fertility and mortality. Finally, issues pertaining to labour force composition, such as migration and immigration, are discussed. The book is a rare find: its discussion of Singapore’s population trends is comprehensive but clear, presented with a factual, information-centric approach to the subject matter. It is, in many ways, a puzzle that has been painstakingly put together from myriad sources on the reader’s behalf. Presented chronologically, the strength of this text is its ability to connect the dots between different population trends and policies, allowing interesting findings that may not have been immediately noticeable to surface. Saw’s work is particularly relevant at this point in Singapore’s history. As population issues like fertility, immigration and labour surface as hot button topics, this book will serve as a useful overview of all the policies pertaining to Singapore’s population. The book covers a wide-range of policies: the maid levy, voluntary sterilisation and adoption policies are but a few of the policies that are discussed. Accounts of these policies are accompanied by data that illustrate their policy implications or lack thereof. The findings that the book presents are varied, ranging from the annual total fertility rate compared against the Chinese zodiac calendar to the changing distribution of total population by geographical region 59
Cheryl Sim is a concurrent degree student reading Business and Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. She enjoys exploring kinship and social issues in Singapore, and is particularly interested in the subject of family ties. She can be contacted at cherylsimsl@nus.edu.sg
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS VOL. 5. NO. 2