Over the last 20 years, Singapore’s national total fertility rate has remained low, hovering at a below-replacement rate of 0.9 to 1.2.

The lack of success from the last few decades of pro-parenthood policies seems to indicate that government efforts need to focus on supporting not only extrinsic factors for family formation but also intrinsic ones related to personal values, social influences and lifestyle preferences.

Better policy solutions are necessary; however, programme improvements can only be as good as the research available to policymakers. Hence, government surveys like the recently released Marriage and Parenthood Survey 2021, done by the National Population and Talent Division, need to incorporate more in-depth qualitative perspectives to better understand the micro-level factors influencing family size preferences.

Introducing qualitative research on couples at different stages of their parenthood journeys could also allow policymakers to develop calibrated and differential measures better suited for overcoming the unique barriers to childbearing faced by different segments of the population.

Additionally, national family promotion campaigns, such as the Year of Celebrating SG Families and Made for Families, could use the insight garnered to improve future engagement efforts.

Marcus Tan Wei En