For subscribers
Why does everyone think they are middle class?
Most people want the middle-class Singapore Dream: a life of security, comfort and room for upward mobility. Yet they are finding this increasingly unattainable.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
More than half of Singapore households are classified as middle-income – a proxy for middle class.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Tan Ern Ser and Sim Kai Lin
Follow topic:
We are all familiar with the Singapore Story – the country-equivalent of a rags-to-riches story. In slightly more than one generation, Singapore rapidly moved up the ranks from being Third World to First World.
At the individual and familial level, the Singapore Story is experienced as upward social mobility, rising from poverty or low income to middle-class status.
