S’pore population rises 1.6% to 6.21 million, driven by construction workers for projects like T5

SINGAPORE – The population of Singapore has risen to 6.21 million as at June 2026, up from 6.11 million the year before.

Overall, the total population grew by 97,300, with non-residents adding 70,300, citizens 24,200 and permanent residents 2,800.

The increase – 1.6 per cent – was driven in particular by more construction workers for key infrastructure projects such as Changi Airport Terminal 5 and the ramp-up of housing supply, said the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) on Sept 25.

These workers, considered part of the non-resident population, are also involved in the Marina Bay Sands expansion and in building transport infrastructure, it said.

Meanwhile, the citizen population increased by 0.7 per cent to 3.68 million in June 2026, from 3.66 million in June 2025, said the NPTD in its annual Population in Brief 2026 report.

Singapore’s permanent resident (PR) population remained relatively stable at 0.55 million in June 2026, the report added.

In 2025, 25,094 people were granted citizenship, and another 35,352 were granted permanent residency. The average number of citizenships and permanent residencies granted per year from 2021 to 2025 rose compared with the five years before, it said.

In that time, Singapore granted an average of 22,400 citizenships and 34,600 permanent residencies, compared with an average of 20,600 citizenships and 31,200 permanent residencies between 2016 and 2020.

The report broke down the demographics of the 25,094 new citizens and 35,352 new PRs for 2025.

Most came from South-east Asia, with 62.1 per cent of new citizens and 61.6 per cent of new PRs hailing from the region.

Another 35.4 per cent of new citizens and 31.6 per cent of new PRs came from other Asian countries, with the remainder coming from elsewhere.

Among new citizens and PRs aged 20 and above, more than four in 10 had post-secondary qualifications. The rest had a secondary education or below.

Non-residents, which make up the remainder of the population, increased by 3.7 per cent to 1.98 million in June 2026 from 1.91 million in June 2025.

The increase was driven primarily by more work permit holders and migrant domestic workers, the report said.

Foreign employment growth in Singapore was higher over the period of June 2025 to June 2026, compared with June 2024 to June 2025, primarily because of increases in the number of work permit holders, it said.

The report said Singapore’s non-resident population, which includes these two groups, is diverse and that its size and composition vary over time to support the country’s “evolving economic and social needs”.

Today, the foreign workforce, not including migrant domestic workers, makes up about two-thirds of the non-resident population.

The remaining one-third comprises mainly migrant domestic workers, dependants, and students, it added.

The country’s annualised population growth rate between 2021 and 2026 was higher than the preceding five-year period between 2016 and 2021.

“This was in part influenced by Covid-19, which contributed to a lower total population base in 2021 and subsequent higher growth registered on average over 2021-2026,” said the report, which also released figures on the rate at which Singapore’s population is ageing.

Singapore is now a super-aged society, with more than 21 per cent of the population aged 65 and older.

Commenting on the growth in Singapore’s foreign workforce, labour economist Walter Theseira said demand is concentrated in areas where locals are unwilling to take up jobs, such as construction or domestic work. 

The ageing population also means increased demand every year for domestic and care work – much of which is also not desirable for local workers, said Theseira, who is an associate professor of economics at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Singapore also has a “long list” of upcoming infrastructure projects including new MRT lines, plans for land reclamation along the East Coast and the merging of several offshore islands announced at the National Day Rally in August, Theseira noted. 

On the rising numbers of new citizens and PRs, Mathews Mathew, principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said immigration in 2020 would have been unusually low because of the pandemic.

Aside from this, the Government did increase the intake of residents in line with the concerns over Singapore’s ageing population and low fertility rate, he noted. 

Immigration is increasingly important in preventing the citizen population from shrinking too quickly, and the Government has indicated that it expects somewhat higher citizen and PR intake over the next five years, he said. 

At the 2026 Budget debate, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said Singapore will carefully manage the immigration flow to augment the dismal birth rate. 

Depending on demographic trends, the Government expects to grant 25,000 to 30,000 new citizenships annually over the next five years – which means from 17 per cent to 41 per cent more than the average of 21,300 new citizenships granted annually between 2020 and 2024.

He added that the number of new PRs granted will also go from an average of 33,000 a year between 2020 and 2024, to about 40,000 a year in the next five years.

Individuals must be PRs for at least two years before they can apply for citizenship.

Socially and politically, the issue will increasingly be about how immigration and naturalisation are managed, Mathew said. 

“Polls show that Singaporeans generally understand why immigration is necessary, but while there is an understanding of the economic imperative, there remain concerns about jobs, fairness, whether we have sufficient infrastructure to absorb more of a population and whether newcomers actually integrate,” he said. 

The population does not just need persuasion that immigration is critical for Singapore’s well-being, but have to feel that the pace is manageable, he added.

“Very importantly, they need to feel that new citizens have developed a genuine sense of belonging and commitment to Singapore,” he said.

Marriage and parenthood

The report also gave some new figures on marriage and parenthood. There were 21,671 citizen marriages in 2025, 5.6 per cent lower than the 22,955 citizen marriages in 2024, the report added.

The average number of citizen marriages per year from 2023 to 2025 was 23,000, lower than between 2016 and 2019 when the average was 23,500 a year, it said.

Singaporeans are also getting married later. The report said the median age at first marriage for grooms was 30.8 and 29.1 for brides in 2025, up from 30.1 for grooms and 27.9 for brides in 2015.

It added that transnational marriages made up 37 per cent of citizen marriages in 2025 – a figure which has been largely stable since 2015, barring dips during the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022.

Inter-ethnic marriages made up 19 per cent of citizen marriages in 2025. This proportion has also remained largely stable since 2015, it said.

Meanwhile, the proportion of single Singaporeans has been rising over time, it added.

Between 2015 and 2025, the proportion of singles rose across most male and female age groups.

It noted that this trend is particularly pronounced for those aged from 25 to 29 and 30 to 34.