PUBLISHED ONJune 09, 2026 4:58 AMUPDATEDJune 09, 2026 3:29 PMBYDana LeongSingapore is focused on maintaining stability and avoiding a population decline amid falling birth rates, rather than updating its projected population planning figures, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Speaking at a dialogue with the Singapore Press Club on Monday (June 8), PM Wong was asked if there would be an updated population White Paper with a new population planning parameter, perhaps "set at 10 million".
With raised eyebrows, PM Wong replied: "How do we get to 10 million when the TFR (Total Fertility Rate) is so low?"
He pointed out that Singapore's fertility rate — which reached a new low of 0.87 in 2025 — is not likely to go up.
The 10 million population figure was used by opposition parties during the 2020 General Election to falsely suggest that the Government planned to increase Singapore's population by bringing in foreigners.
The Government has since said that it has "not proposed, planned nor targeted for Singapore to increase its population to 10 million".
In an update in 2024, the Government said that given recent trends, Singapore's total population is likely to be significantly below 6.9 million by 2030 and that "this outlook remains valid today".
During the dialogue, PM Wong said that Singapore is still "far away" from reaching the population upper limit of 6.9 million and there is "no new figure to be updated".
"Our population will just grow at a much slower rate than before, and we are just trying to maintain stability and to avoid population decline," he said at the dialogue.
He added that declining birth rates is a "global challenge", and that the Republic must try to create a more family-friendly environment while remaining open to immigration in order to support population growth.
"Nowadays you look around the world, even developing countries are having declining birth rates below replacement levels. It's a global phenomenon," he said.
"This is the reality. We have not given up though, we are still trying," PM Wong said, highlighting the newly convened Marriage and Parenthood reset workgroup which is chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah.
He added that he has encouraged the workgroup to reframe their approach towards Singapore's low birth rate, explaining that they should "move away from the idea of creating incentives for marriage and procreation, but think more about what are the moves we can make to really make life better for families in Singapore".
For example, he said that the group could tackle concerns of young parents surrounding costs for infant care, child care, education, and housing.
He said: "At the end of the day after doing that, I may not get more babies, but it's still worth doing."
At the same time, PM Wong said that Singapore will maintain its posture as an "immigrant nation", "given the realities of where our fertility rates are likely to be".
"But certainly we will control the (immigration) flows because we want to make sure that all new arrivals share our values and way of life are able to integrate well here," he added.
He also mentioned how immigration flows link to artificial intelligence (AI) and technology.
"If we are not going to be able to have that many new immigrants, new arrivals that access to people, then all the more we need to harness technology well in order to do the things we want to do, and to become more productive," he said.
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This article's headline has been edited for clarity.