More young Singapore residents aged 25 to 34 staying single, especially among Chinese

SINGAPORE – More young people in their 20s and 30s have stayed single over the past five years.

About three in four female residents here (73.4 per cent) aged 25 to 29 were single in 2025, up from 69 per cent in 2020.

For their male counterparts in the same age bracket, the proportion of singles rose from 81.6 per cent in 2020 to 85.9 per cent in 2025.

These are some of the latest numbers from the Department of Statistics (DOS) in the General Household Survey 2025 published on June 30.

For men, the sharpest increase in singlehood was among those aged 30 to 34, from 41.9 per cent in 2020 to 47.6 per cent in 2025.

Singlehood and marrying later continued to be more prevalent among Chinese residents than among Malays and Indians, the survey found.

In 2025, 38 per cent of Chinese resident males and 30.7 per cent of Chinese resident females aged 30 to 39 years were single, higher than the proportions for Malays and Indians in the same age group.

Among men in their 40s, singlehood was more prevalent among those with lower educational qualifications. In 2025, 18.9 per cent of resident males aged 40 to 49 with secondary and below qualifications were single, compared with 13.8 per cent of those with university qualifications.

The opposite was found for females – women with higher educational qualifications were more likely to be single. In 2025, 16.5 per cent of resident females aged 40 to 49 with university qualifications were single, compared with 9.6 per cent of those with secondary and below qualifications.

Overall, married couple-based households with children remained the most common household living arrangement in Singapore. They made up 47.6 per cent of all resident households, a slight dip from 50.4 per cent in 2020.

The General Household Survey, published by DOS between the population censuses, provides a snapshot of Singapore’s population and household trends. The last survey was released in 2015.

Population censuses are carried out every 10 years, with the most recent held in 2020.

The survey also pointed to a continued shift towards dual-income families. The proportion of dual-career couples, where both husband and wife are employed, rose from 52.5 per cent in 2020 to 56.6 per cent in 2025.

At the same time, married couples where only the husband was employed became less common.

While the increase in dual-career couples was recorded across all age groups, the growth was more pronounced among couples aged 35 to 49 and those aged 50 to 64.

Rise in education levels

Singapore residents continued to be more highly educated. Between 2020 and 2025, the proportion of residents aged 25 years and over with post-secondary or higher qualifications grew to 64.8 per cent from 58.3 per cent.

While the gender gap in educational attainment persisted among older residents, it narrowed among younger people in Singapore.

Among those aged 25 to 34 years, the proportion of females with post-secondary or higher qualifications was 92.5 per cent in 2025, higher than that of males at 91 per cent. For male residents aged 35 to 44, 88.4 per cent had post-secondary or higher qualifications as compared with 87.8 per cent for females.

The proportion of married couples where the husband and wife had the same highest qualification increased from 46.6 per cent in 2020 to 52 per cent in 2025.

The proportion of married couples where the wife had lower qualifications than the husband declined from 30.8 per cent in 2020 to 26.7 per cent in 2025, while the share of couples where the wife was more highly qualified than the husband dipped slightly, from 22.5 per cent to 21.4 per cent.

The proportion of residents with post-secondary or higher qualifications rose across the Chinese, Malay and Indian communities. Malays recorded a substantial increase in the proportion with diploma and professional qualifications.

Rising numbers of singlehood should not be automatically interpreted as a rejection of relationships, said Kalpana Vignehsa, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

Drawing on her research into youth dating culture, she noted that many young adults still aspire to long-term partnership and marriage. What has changed is the pathway to those goals and how they are prioritised among other aspirations.

“Many young adults feel that relationships should come after they have secured their educational and sometimes even career achievements. This can delay when youth even start exploring the possibility of having a romantic relationship at all,” she said.

Youth also increasingly want to be in relationships that feel emotionally compatible, equitable and personally fulfilling, she said. “They are less willing to enter or remain in relationships simply because they have reached a socially expected life stage.”

As a result, the search for a partner often takes longer and is shaped by higher expectations, delaying partnership formation even further, she added.

Mathew Mathews, principal research fellow at IPS, said delayed marriage has clear implications for Singapore’s total fertility rate, because it tends to postpone childbearing and compress the window for family formation.

“This makes smaller families more likely, and may also increase the proportion of couples who remain childless, given that fertility declines with age,” he said.

Mathews said Singapore is likely to see a more diverse household landscape in the years ahead, with more singles, later-forming families, child-free couples, smaller households and people living alone.

“These patterns are already visible, and current trends suggest they are likely to become more pronounced,” he added.

While existing marriage and parenthood policies address practical barriers like housing, childcare, parental leave and financial costs, he said deeper shifts may be at play.

These include changing attitudes towards relationships, as individuals weigh marriage and childbearing against demands such as career and other life expectations, he said.

“Clearly the decision to marry and have children is no longer as attractive or viewed as a necessity.”

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we described Mathew Mathews as a senior research fellow instead of a principal research fellow. This has been corrected.