Singapore
Name
| Official name | Republic of Singapore; Republik Singapura (Malay, the national language); 新加坡共和国, Xīnjiāpō Gònghéguó (Chinese); சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு, Ciṅkappūr Kuṭiyaracu (Tamil); Singapore the short form |
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| Former names | The State of Singapore (3 June 1959 – 9 August 1965) — self-governing under the Crown to 16 September 1963 and a state of Malaysia from then to the separation; the Colony of Singapore (1 April 1946 – 1959), the crown colony on its own after the Straits Settlements were broken up; Syonan-to, "Light of the South," under the Japanese occupation (15 February 1942 – 12 September 1945); the Straits Settlements (1826–1946) with Penang and Malacca, of the East India Company to 1858, of the India Office to 1867 and a crown colony of the Colonial Office from 1 April 1867, Singapore their capital from 1832; the East India Company's trading post of Sir Stamford Raffles of 6 February 1819; Singapura of the Malay sultanates and the Malay Annals from about 1299; Temasek, "sea town," of the Javanese and the Chinese records of the 1300s; the "Pu Luo Chung" of a Chinese account of the third century by the common reading |
| Demonym | Singaporean |
| Meaning of the name | "Lion city" — Sanskrit siṃha, lion, and pura, city or fortress, the Singapura of the Malay Annals, where Sang Nila Utama, a prince of Srivijaya from Palembang, landing on Temasek about 1299, saw a strange animal he was told was a lion and named the place for it; no lion ever lived on the island and the animal, if any, was a tiger; "Temasek," the older name, Old Javanese for "sea town," survives in Temasek Holdings and the schools; the "Lion City," the "Garden City" of Lee Kuan Yew's campaign of 1967, and the "Little Red Dot," the phrase of Indonesia's President Habibie of 1998 that the country took up with pride |
| Motto | "Majulah Singapura" — "Onward, Singapore," in Malay, on the state crest of 1959 and the title of the anthem |
Quick facts
| Capital | Singapore — a city-state; the seat of government in the Downtown Core on the south shore of the main island: Parliament House (1999) by the Singapore River, the Istana (1869) of the president and the prime minister on Orchard Road, the Supreme Court (2005), the Padang; no capital distinct from the country |
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| Largest towns | The new towns of the Housing and Development Board by the planning areas of the Urban Redevelopment Authority — Bedok, Tampines, Jurong West, Sengkang and Woodlands each of about 250,000 or more; Hougang, Yishun, Punggol, Choa Chu Kang, Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Batok, Bukit Merah, Toa Payoh, Pasir Ris, Queenstown, the first of them all (1952), and Bukit Panjang; the Central Area of the offices and the shophouses of Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam |
| Official languages | Four — English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil, by Article 153A of the Constitution; Malay the national language, of the anthem, the pledge's first form and the commands of the armed forces; English the working language of government, the courts, Parliament and the schools since 1965, the first language of 48.3% of households by the census of 2020, Mandarin of 29.9%, Malay of 9.2%, the Chinese dialects of Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese of 8.7% after the Speak Mandarin Campaign of 1979, Tamil of 2.5%; the bilingual policy of the schools since 1966 that teaches every child English and a "mother tongue"; Singlish, the creole of the street the government campaigns against and the people love |
| Currency | Singapore dollar — SGD, S$; 100 cents; the Monetary Authority of Singapore; about 1.28 to the U.S. dollar; at par with the Brunei dollar by the Currency Interchangeability Agreement of 12 June 1967 |
| Time zone | Singapore Standard Time, UTC+8, since 1 January 1982; no summer time |
| Calling code | +65 |
| Internet domain | .sg; .新加坡 and .சிங்கப்பூர் in the Chinese and Tamil scripts |
| ISO 3166 codes | SG · SGP · 702 |
| Vehicle registration code | SGP |
| Driving side | Left — the legacy of the British, kept when Malaysia and Indonesia kept it too |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug type G |
| Independence | 9 August 1965, from Malaysia — the separation agreed on 7 August 1965 and proclaimed by Lee Kuan Yew at the press conference of the tears, the only country of the modern world to gain its independence unwillingly; a republic within the Commonwealth by the Republic of Singapore Independence Act of 22 December 1965, backdated to 9 August; self-government from the United Kingdom on 3 June 1959; the union with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as Malaysia on 16 September 1963; the founding of the modern settlement by Raffles on 6 February 1819 |
| National days | 9 August, National Day, the parade at the Padang or the Marina Bay floating platform, the fly-past and the fireworks, the 60th of 2025 on the Padang; the eleven public holidays — New Year's Day, the two days of Chinese New Year, Good Friday, Hari Raya Puasa, Labour Day of 1 May, Vesak Day, Hari Raya Haji, National Day, Deepavali and Christmas Day, the Muslim and Hindu dates by their calendars; Total Defence Day of 15 February, the day of the fall of 1942, and Racial Harmony Day of 21 July, the day of the riots of 1964, marked in the schools |
| Constitution | 9 August 1965 — the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, made of the State Constitution of 1963 and the provisions of the Malaysian federal constitution the Independence Act carried over, consolidated in the reprint of 1980: a president as head of state, the prime minister and cabinet responsible to a unicameral Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Presidential Council for Minority Rights, the entrenched Part on the Malays as the indigenous people and the four languages; amended for the Non-Constituency Members of 1984, the Group Representation Constituencies of 1988, the Nominated Members of 1990, the Elected Presidency of 1991 with its custodial veto over the past reserves and the key appointments, the Council of Presidential Advisers, the reserved presidential elections of 2016 for a race that has not held the office for five terms, and the definition of marriage of 2022 the repeal of Section 377A was paired with; amendable by two-thirds of the elected members |
| Population | 6,208,500 at the end of June 2026 (Department of Statistics) — 4,231,500 residents, of them 3,684,900 citizens and 546,600 permanent residents, and 1,977,000 non-residents on work, study and dependant passes; 5,685,807 at the census of 2020; 6,111,175 at the end of June 2025; the total up about 1.6% in the year on the non-residents and the residents up 0.6% |
| Area | 744.3 km² (287.4 sq mi) in 2026 by the Department of Statistics, of it about 730 km² of land — about 580 km² in the 1960s and 710 km² for the main island alone today, a quarter of the state reclaimed from the sea since 1822 with 100 km² more planned; the second-smallest state of Asia after the Maldives and among the 20 smallest of the world; the main island of Pulau Ujong 50 km by 27 km and some 60 islets |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Two equal horizontal bands of red over white, in the proportion 2:3, with a white crescent moon and five white five-pointed stars in a circle in the upper hoist — the red for "universal brotherhood and equality of man," the white for "pervading and everlasting purity and virtue," the crescent for "a young nation on the ascendant" and the five stars for the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality; designed in two months by a committee under Deputy Prime Minister Toh Chin Chye, adopted on 3 December 1959 with the state crest and the anthem as Yusof Ishak took office as Yang di-Pertuan Negara, flown beside the Malaysian flag from 1963 and reconfirmed as the national flag on 9 August 1965; Pantone 032 C; governed by the National Symbols Act of 2022, in force 1 August 2023, which replaced the Singapore Arms and Flag and National Anthem Act of 30 November 1959, and flown by anyone from 1 July to 30 September of the National Day season.Flag of Singapore |
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| State crest | The coat of arms of 3 December 1959 of Toh Chin Chye's committee — a red shield bearing the white crescent and five stars of the flag, supported by a lion for Singapore and a tiger for the Malaya it then hoped to join, on a blue ribbon with "Majulah Singapura" in gold; the arms of the president, the government and the passports, the crest the public may not use; the lion head symbol of 1986 for the uses the crest is too formal for |
| National anthem | "Majulah Singapura" — "Onward, Singapore" — the words and music of Zubir Said, the Sumatra-born composer of the Cathay-Keris film studio, written in 1958 as the song of the City Council for the reopening of the Victoria Theatre on 6 September 1958, chosen as the state anthem on 3 December 1959 and the national anthem at independence in 1965; sung only in Malay, in the F major arrangement of Phoon Yew Tien of 2001 that replaced the G major of the original; the National Symbols Act of 2022 governs its use |
| National Pledge | "We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation" — written by S. Rajaratnam, the foreign minister, in 1966 after the riots of 1964, first recited in the schools on 24 August 1966, said with the right fist over the heart at every school assembly and National Day parade |
| National motto | "Majulah Singapura" — "Onward, Singapore" |
| National colors | Red and white — the flag's bands |
| National flower | Vanda Miss Joaquim — the orchid hybrid of Vanda teres and Vanda hookeriana that Agnes Joaquim, an Armenian Singaporean, found in her garden at Tanjong Pagar in 1893 and Henry Ridley of the Botanic Gardens described, chosen as the national flower on 15 April 1981 by the Ministry of Culture from 40 candidates for its "resilience and year-round blooming quality"; Papilionanthe Miss Joaquim to the botanists since; the orchids of the National Orchid Garden of 1995 named for the visiting heads of state |
| National animal | The lion — of the name, the crest and the lion head symbol of 1986; the Merlion, the half-lion, half-fish figure Alec Fraser-Brunner of the Van Kleef Aquarium drew in 1964 as the logo of the Tourist Promotion Board, the 8.6-meter, 70-ton statue of the sculptor Lim Nang Seng that Lee Kuan Yew unveiled at the mouth of the Singapore River on 15 September 1972 and that was moved 120 m to Merlion Park in April 2002, the six approved statues; the crimson sunbird, "national bird" by the poll of the Nature Society of 2002 and again of 2015, not designated by the state; widely cited |
| National dish | None designated — Hainanese chicken rice the most cited, of the immigrants of Hainan and the Swee Kee of the 1940s; chili crab of Cher Yam Tian's pushcart of 1956; laksa, char kway teow, Hokkien mee, bak kut teh, satay, roti prata, nasi lemak, fish head curry, kaya toast with soft-boiled eggs and kopi, the ice kacang and the durian; the hawker centers of the 110-plus government-built halls that took the street stalls indoors from 1971, the "hawker culture" inscribed by UNESCO on 16 December 2020, the Michelin stars for a hawker stall since 2016; the Singapore Sling of the Raffles Hotel bar of 1915; the Tiger beer of 1932; widely cited |
| National sport | None designated — football of the Lions, the Malaysia Cup of 1994 and the four Southeast Asian titles of 1998, 2004, 2007 and 2012, the National Stadium of 1973 and its successor of 2014 at the Sports Hub, Fandi Ahmad; swimming of Joseph Schooling's 100-meter butterfly gold of Rio 2016 that beat Michael Phelps, the country's first Olympic gold; table tennis of the women's team silver of 2008 and the bronzes of 2012 with Feng Tianwei; badminton of Loh Kean Yew, world champion of 2021; kitefoiling of Max Maeder, world champion of 2023 and 2024 and Olympic bronze of 2024; sailing; the Formula One night race of the Marina Bay circuit since 28 September 2008; the Youth Olympic Games of 2010, the first; the Kallang Wave; widely cited |
| Heritage listings | The Singapore Botanic Gardens of 1859, inscribed on the World Heritage list on 4 July 2015, the first and only tropical botanic garden on it and the country's only site; the hawker culture of 2020 and the kebaya of 4 December 2024, with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, on the intangible list; the 75 national monuments from the Armenian Church of 1835 and the Sri Mariamman Temple of 1827 to the Padang; the Peranakan culture of the Straits Chinese of the shophouses of Katong and Joo Chiat; the Thaipusam procession, the Hungry Ghost month, the Chingay parade of 1973; the "kampong spirit" the flats are asked to keep |
| Symbol status | The flag, the crest and the anthem by the Act of 30 November 1959 and the National Symbols Act of 2022; the pledge by usage since 1966; the flower by the ministry's choice of 1981; the Merlion by trademark since 1966; the animal, the bird, the dish and the sport widely cited, none designated |
Geography
| Location | Southeast Asia, at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 1°17′N 103°50′E, 137 km north of the equator — the Straits of Johor to the north with Malaysia's Johor Bahru across the causeway, the Singapore Strait to the south with the Indonesian islands of Batam and Bintan of the Riau archipelago 20 km away, the Strait of Malacca opening to the west; astride the sea lane between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea that carries a quarter of the world's trade, the reason for the port of 1819 and for everything since |
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| Land borders | None — an island state, joined to Malaysia by the Johor–Singapore Causeway of 1,056 m of 1924, road, rail and the water pipes, the busiest land crossing of the world at some 300,000 people a day, and by the Tuas Second Link of 1998 in the west; the maritime boundaries with Malaysia and Indonesia of the treaties of 1973, 1995, 2009 and 2014 and the segments still unmarked; Pedra Branca, the rock of the Horsburgh Lighthouse of 1851 at the eastern entrance of the strait, awarded to Singapore by the International Court of Justice on 23 May 2008, Middle Rocks to Malaysia and South Ledge to whoever owns the waters, Malaysia's application to revise the judgment dropped in 2018 |
| Coastline | 193 km (120 mi) by the Factbook count the family carries, more by every reclamation — the container terminals of the south and the west, the Changi and Marina Bay of the reclaimed east, the beaches of Sentosa, East Coast Park and Changi, the mangroves of Sungei Buloh, Kranji and Pasir Ris of the north, the Kallang Basin, the Southern Islands of St. John's, Kusu, Lazarus and the Sisters' of the marine park of 2014, the cruise terminals of Marina Bay and HarbourFront; the "Long Island" of the plans of 2023, 800 hectares off East Coast Park against the rising sea |
| Highest point | Bukit Timah Hill, 163.63 m (537 ft), granite, in the nature reserve of 1883; Bukit Gombak 133 m; Bukit Panjang; Mount Faber 105 m of the cable car of 1974; Bukit Batok; the Southern Ridges; Sentosa's Imbiah Lookout |
| Lowest point | The sea, 0 m — the Singapore Strait; the reclaimed ground of Marina Bay and Changi a few meters above it and the barrages and the tide gates of the plans against a rise of a meter by 2100 |
| Mean elevation | About 15 m (50 ft) |
| Rivers | Short and canalized — the Kallang, 10 km, the longest, from the Lower Peirce Reservoir to the Kallang Basin; the Singapore River, 3.2 km, the old harbor of the godowns, Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay, cleaned in the ten-year campaign of 1977 to 1987 Lee Kuan Yew ordered; the Geylang; the Rochor; the Seletar, the Punggol and the Serangoon of the northeast, dammed into reservoirs; the Jurong and the Pandan of the west; the Sungei Buloh of the mangroves; the Sungei Kranji; the Marina Barrage of 2008 across the 350-meter mouth of the bay that turned the Singapore, Kallang and Geylang into the Marina Reservoir in the middle of the city |
| Lakes | No natural lakes — 17 reservoirs on two-thirds of the land: MacRitchie of 1868, the first, of the TreeTop Walk; Lower Peirce of 1912; Upper Seletar of 1920, enlarged in 1969; Upper Peirce of 1975; Kranji and Pandan of 1975 of the estuary dams; Bedok and Lower Seletar of 1986; Marina of 2008, Punggol and Serangoon of 2011; Jurong Lake, Murai, Poyan, Sarimbun and Tengeh of the west with the floating solar farm of 60 MWp of 2021 on Tengeh; Jurong Lake Gardens; the Sungei Buloh ponds |
| Terrain | Low and gently undulating — the granite hills of the center from Bukit Timah to the Central Catchment, the sedimentary ridges and valleys of Jurong in the west, the flat old alluvium of the east where Changi and the new towns lie, the reclaimed flats of the coasts; the main island of Pulau Ujong, 710 km², and the islands — Jurong Island of 32 km², seven islets joined into the petrochemical complex between 1995 and 2009; Pulau Tekong of 24 km², the army's basic training island; Pulau Ubin of 10 km², the last kampong; Sentosa of 5 km², the resort; Pulau Semakau, the landfill of 1999; Pulau Brani of the navy and the port; St. John's, Kusu, Lazarus and the Sisters'; Pedra Branca 46 km to the east; the Jurong and Bukit Timah granites the quarries cut out |
| Climate | Tropical rainforest (Köppen Af) — hot and wet the year round, 27 to 28°C the mean with the highs of 31 to 33 and the lows of 24 to 25, humidity of 80% and more; about 2,340 mm of rain a year by the long series with no dry season, the northeast monsoon of November to January the wettest and February the driest, the southwest monsoon of June to September of the "Sumatra squalls" of the early morning, the afternoon thunderstorms of the inter-monsoon months, among the highest lightning rates of the world; the records of 37.0°C at Tengah on 17 April 1983 and at Ang Mo Kio on 13 May 2023, and 19.4°C on 14 February 1989; December 2006 the wettest month of 996.3 mm; the warming of about a quarter of a degree a decade the Meteorological Service counts and the sea rising |
| Natural hazards | Few of the great kind — outside the typhoon belt and the earthquake zones, the tremors of Sumatra's quakes felt in the towers; the flash floods of the storms, Orchard Road under water on 16 June 2010, the drains of the S$2 billion program since; the haze of the Indonesian forest and peat fires of the dry years, the Pollutant Standards Index of 401 on 21 June 2013 and the school closures of September 2015; the heat; the sea-level rise of up to a meter by 2100 the government prices at S$100 billion over a century, the Coastal and Flood Protection Fund of 2020; the water dependence on Johor the four national taps were built against; the dengue of every wet year; the SARS of 2003 of 33 dead and the COVID-19 of 2020 to 2022 of about 2,000 |
| Natural resources | The deep-water harbor on the strait and the location, "the only resource the people," in the government's phrase; fish; the granite of the quarries of Bukit Timah, Bukit Gombak and Pulau Ubin, worked out; the sand the reclamation imports from the region and the neighbors have banned, Indonesia since 2007, Malaysia since 2019; the rain the reservoirs catch and the NEWater the plants recycle; no oil or gas of its own beneath the largest refining and bunkering trade of the region; the 1% of land the farms of Lim Chu Kang and Kranji and the vertical farms of the 30 by 30 food plan hold, and the fish farms of the Johor Strait |
| Land use | A city on nearly every hectare — the towns, the industry, the ports and the airport, the roads on 12% of the land, the military training grounds and the airbases, the reservoirs, the reserves and the parks; about 47% under green cover by the satellite counts of the "City in Nature"; under 1% farmed, the vegetable and fish farms of Lim Chu Kang and Kranji and the vertical farms; the reclaimed 25% of the state; the Master Plan of 2019 and the Long-Term Plan of 2022 that keep the island's room for 2100 |
| National parks | Four nature reserves — Bukit Timah (1883 as a forest reserve, a nature reserve since 1951), 163 hectares of primary rainforest around the highest hill; Central Catchment, 2,880 hectares around MacRitchie, Upper and Lower Peirce and Upper Seletar of the TreeTop Walk of 2004 and the Rail Corridor; Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (2002), 202 hectares of the mangroves and the migratory birds of the East Asian flyway, an ASEAN Heritage Park; Labrador (2002), 10 hectares of the cliff and the coral off Pasir Panjang; the Sisters' Islands Marine Park of 2014; more than 400 parks of the National Parks Board — the Botanic Gardens (1859) of the World Heritage list, Gardens by the Bay (2012) of the 101 hectares, the 18 Supertrees of 25 to 50 m, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest with its 35-meter indoor waterfall, Fort Canning, East Coast Park, the Southern Ridges, Jurong Lake Gardens, the Rail Corridor of 24 km on the old railway, the Park Connector Network of more than 380 km; the Mandai Wildlife Reserve of the Singapore Zoo (1973), the Night Safari (1994), the River Wonders (2012), the Bird Paradise (2023) that replaced the Jurong Bird Park of 1971 and the Rainforest Wild Asia of 2025 |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — the Singapore Botanic Gardens (2015), 82 hectares at the edge of Orchard Road founded by the Agri-Horticultural Society in 1859 on the site of the garden of 1822 of Raffles, the gardens of Henry Ridley's rubber trees of 1877 and 1888 that seeded the plantations of Malaya, of the National Orchid Garden of 1995 and its 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids, of the Bandstand of 1930 and the rainforest older than the garden; the intangible list — hawker culture (2020) and the kebaya (2024); nothing on the tentative list |
| Administrative divisions | A single city-state without local government — 5 regions (Central, East, North, North-East, West) and 55 planning areas of the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Master Plan for the planners and the statisticians; 5 districts of the Community Development Councils of 1997 — Central, North East, North West, South East and South West — each under a mayor appointed from the members of Parliament; 17 town councils of the members of Parliament of 2025 that run the estates, 15 of the PAP and 2 of the Workers' Party (Aljunied-Hougang and Sengkang); 33 electoral divisions of the election of 2025 — 18 Group Representation Constituencies of four or five members and 15 single-member constituencies; the Central Area of the CBD |
People
| Population | 6,208,500 (end-June 2026, Department of Statistics) — 4,231,500 residents (3,684,900 citizens, 546,600 permanent residents) and 1,977,000 non-residents; 5,685,807 (census of 2020); 4,027,887 (2000); 2,074,507 (1970); 938,000 (1947); 228,555 (1901); 10,683 (1824); about 1,000 fishers and pirates when Raffles landed in 1819 |
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| Population density | About 8,300 per km² (21,500 per sq mi) on the whole area — the second-highest of the sovereign states after Monaco and the third of all territories after Macau; the new towns of 20,000 and more per km²; the Central Catchment and the military islands nearly empty |
| Population growth | About 1.6% in the year to June 2026, nearly all of it the foreign workers and the passes; the citizens up 0.7% on the 22,000 or so naturalized a year and the births — 26,071 citizen births in 2025, down 10.8% on 2024, against about 27,000 resident deaths; the permanent residents about 34,000 new a year; the migrant workers of the construction, marine and domestic sectors, some 1.5 million on work passes, the largest share of any state of the region; the Population White Paper of 2013 and its "6.9 million by 2030" the government withdrew from |
| Median age | 43.6 years (residents, 2026) — 19.5% of residents and 21.4% of citizens aged 65 and over, a "super-aged" society by the UN's threshold in 2026, one in four by 2030; the Pioneer and Merdeka generations of the subsidies |
| Life expectancy | About 84 years — 83.9 by the encyclopedias' 2025 figure, 81.9 for men and 86.0 for women, among the four or five longest of the world; the infant mortality of 2 per thousand among the lowest anywhere; the healthy life expectancy of 73 among the highest of the world by the WHO count |
| Fertility rate | 0.87 births per woman (residents, 2025), the lowest on record and among the lowest of the world, down from 0.97 in 2024 and 1.60 in 2000 — the Chinese residents 0.70, the Indians 0.92, the Malays 1.53; the Baby Bonus of 2001, the 20 weeks of maternity leave, the shared parental leave of 30 weeks from 2026 and the flats for the married that have not turned it |
| Urban population | 100% |
| Adult literacy | 97.1% (census of 2020) — the men 98.5%, the women 95.8%; the young at 99.9% |
| Ethnic groups | Chinese 74.3% of the residents by the census of 2020 — Hokkien the largest, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese, the Peranakan of the Straits-born; Malay 13.5%, the indigenous people by Article 152 of the Constitution, of Johor, Java, the Bugis and the Boyanese of the old kampongs; Indian 9.0%, two-thirds of them Tamil, the Malayalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Gujaratis and Bengalis of Little India and Serangoon Road; others 3.2% — the Eurasians of the Portuguese, Dutch and British marriages, the Arabs of the Alkaff and Alsagoff families of Kampong Glam, the Armenians of the church of 1835, the Jews of the synagogue of 1878, the Japanese, the Westerners; the "CMIO" model of the four boxes of the identity card, the Ethnic Integration Policy of 1989 that fixes the mix of every block of flats |
| Languages | English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil official; English the language of the state, of 48.3% of homes in 2020 and rising with every census, of the Singlish "lah" and "can"; Mandarin of 29.9% of homes and the Chinese dialects of 8.7%, Hokkien first among them, the Cantonese of the older Chinatown, the Teochew of the river; Malay of 9.2% and of the whole of the Malay community, the Bazaar Malay of the old port; Tamil of 2.5% and the Malayalam, Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu the schools teach as non-Tamil Indian languages; the Baba Malay of the Peranakans and the Kristang of the Eurasians nearly gone; Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, Burmese and Thai of the workers; the bilingual policy since 1966; the "mother tongue" of the report card |
| Religion | Buddhism 31.1% by the census of 2020 (30.9% by the General Household Survey of 2025 the encyclopedias cite), the Mahayana of the Chinese temples of Kong Meng San and the Theravada of the Thai and Sri Lankan; no religion 20.0% (23.9% in 2025), rising with every count; Christianity 18.9% (17.1%), the Anglicans of St. Andrew's Cathedral of 1861, the Catholics of the Archdiocese and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd of 1847, the Methodists, the megachurches of City Harvest and New Creation; Islam 15.6% (15.0%), the Sunni of the Malays and the Indian Muslims, the Sultan Mosque of 1928, the Muslim law of the Syariah Court and the Majlis Ugama Islam of 1968; Taoism and the Chinese folk religion 8.8% (7.3%), the Thian Hock Keng of 1839; Hinduism 5.0% (5.4%), the Sri Mariamman Temple of 1827 and the Thaipusam kavadi; Sikhs 0.3%, Jains, Jews, Baha'is, Zoroastrians; the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act of 1990, the Jehovah's Witnesses deregistered in 1972, the Racial Harmony Day; the most religiously diverse country of the world by the Pew index of 2014 |
| Human Development Index | 0.946 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; 13th of 193, the highest of Asia with Hong Kong |
| Housing and living | About 77% of residents in the flats of the Housing and Development Board of 1 February 1960, some 1.1 million flats in 24 towns, about 90% of households owning their homes on the 99-year leases the Central Provident Fund savings of 1955 pay for, the Ethnic Integration Policy quotas of every block, the resale market and the million-dollar flats of the 2020s; the condominiums of the rest and the landed houses of the few; the median resident household income of about S$11,000 a month from work; the Gini of 0.43 before transfers and about 0.36 after by the statisticians; the cost of living the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked the highest of the world with Zurich; the Certificate of Entitlement of a car above S$100,000; the hawker meal of S$5; the Central Provident Fund of the 37% of wages |
| Learning and letters | The schools first of the world in the PISA tests of 2022 in mathematics, reading and science, the Primary School Leaving Examination of every 12-year-old, the streaming of 1979 ended in 2024, the "tuition nation" of the private classes; the National University of Singapore of 1905 as the Straits Settlements medical school, eighth of the world in the QS ranking of 2026, the Nanyang Technological University of 1991 at twelfth, the Singapore Management University of 2000, the SUTD of 2009 with MIT, the SIT and the SUSS, the polytechnics and the ITE; the A*STAR laboratories of Biopolis and Fusionopolis; the writers — Edwin Thumboo, Catherine Lim, Kuo Pao Kun of the theater, Alfian Sa'at, Amanda Lee Koe, Kevin Kwan of "Crazy Rich Asians," Rachel Heng, Sonny Liew of the graphic novel; the films of Eric Khoo, Jack Neo and Anthony Chen's "Ilo Ilo" of the Camera d'Or of 2013; the Esplanade of 2002, the National Gallery of 2015 in the old Supreme Court and City Hall, the National Museum of 1887, the ArtScience Museum of the lotus; the Straits Times of 1845; the Singapore Writers Festival |
| Sport | Joseph Schooling's 100-meter butterfly gold of 12 August 2016 at Rio, the first Olympic gold, and Tan Howe Liang's weightlifting silver of Rome 1960, the first medal; the table tennis women of the silver of Beijing 2008 and the two bronzes of London 2012 — Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu; Max Maeder's kitefoil bronze of Paris 2024 at 17 and his world titles of 2023 and 2024; Loh Kean Yew's badminton world championship of December 2021; Shanti Pereira's 200-meter gold of the Asian Games of 2023; the Lions of the four Southeast Asian titles and the Malaysia Cup of 1994; the Singapore Grand Prix of the Marina Bay street circuit since 2008, the first night race, on the calendar to 2028; the Youth Olympic Games of 14 to 26 August 2010; the Southeast Asian Games hosted in 1973, 1983, 1993 and 2015; the Sports Hub of 2014 and the National Stadium of 55,000; the swimming of the ASEAN pool; the HSBC Rugby Sevens; the marathon of December; the Kallang Roar |
| Diaspora | About 210,000 Singaporeans overseas by the Population in Brief count — Australia of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth the largest, the United Kingdom of London, the United States of California and New York, China and Hong Kong of the bankers, Malaysia of the family across the causeway, Canada, New Zealand; the students of the scholarships who come back bonded; the men who must keep their national service; the Overseas Singaporean Unit of 2006 and the "Singapore Day" gatherings; the voting at ten missions abroad since 2006 and the postal vote of 2023; the "quitters and stayers" of Goh Chok Tong's speech of 2002 |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic on the Westminster model with a dominant party — the president the head of state, directly elected for six years since 1991 with the custodial powers of the "second key" over the past reserves, the key appointments and the security detentions, advised by the Council of Presidential Advisers; the prime minister and the cabinet drawn from and responsible to the unicameral Parliament; the Supreme Court; the People's Action Party in government since 1959 and winner of every election since, 16 in a row to 2025, with 87 of the 97 elected seats; the civil service and the statutory boards of the "Singapore model" of clean, planned, well-paid government, the ministers the best-paid of the world; "partly free" by Freedom House and the third-cleanest country of the world by Transparency International's index of 2024, the press ranked low by Reporters Without Borders, the Internal Security Act and the defamation suits in the critics' account and the stability, the safety and the prosperity in the government's — both stated (LAW 2) |
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| President | Tharman Shanmugaratnam, since 14 September 2023 — the ninth president, elected on 1 September 2023 with 70.4% of the vote against Ng Kok Song (15.7%) and Tan Kin Lian (13.9%) on a turnout of 93.4%; born 25 February 1957 in Singapore of a Ceylon Tamil family, the son of the pathologist K. Shanmugaratnam, the economist of the London School of Economics, Cambridge and Harvard, the managing director of the Monetary Authority, the PAP member of Parliament for Jurong from 2001 to 2023, the minister for education of 2003 to 2008, for finance of 2007 to 2015, deputy prime minister of 2011 to 2019, coordinating minister and senior minister to 2023, the chairman of the IMF's policy committee of 2011 to 2014, the first Asian in the chair, who resigned from the party and the cabinet on 7 July 2023 to stand; the first president of Indian descent by direct election in an open contest; the term of six years to 13 September 2029; the predecessors — Halimah Yacob (2017–23), the first woman, unopposed in the election reserved for the Malays; Tony Tan (2011–17); S. R. Nathan (1999–2011); Ong Teng Cheong (1993–99), the first elected; Wee Kim Wee, Devan Nair, Benjamin Sheares and Yusof Ishak (1965–70), the Malay of the banknotes |
| Prime Minister | Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai (People's Action Party — PAP), since 15 May 2024 — the fourth prime minister after Lee Kuan Yew (1959–90), Goh Chok Tong (1990–2004) and Lee Hsien Loong (2004–24); born 18 December 1972 in Singapore, the son of a Malaysian-born sales executive and a schoolteacher, raised in the flats of Marine Parade, the economist of Wisconsin, Michigan and Harvard on a government scholarship, the civil servant of the trade, finance and health ministries and the principal private secretary of Lee Hsien Loong of 2005 to 2008, the member of Parliament for West Coast from 2011 and for Marsiling–Yew Tee since 2015, the minister for culture (2012–15), national development (2015–20) and education (2020–21), the co-chairman of the COVID-19 task force whose briefings made him known, minister for finance since 15 May 2021 and still, deputy prime minister from 13 June 2022, chosen the leader of the "fourth generation" by the party on 14 April 2022 after Heng Swee Keat stepped aside, the secretary-general of the PAP since 4 December 2024; the "Forward Singapore" agenda of the social compact, the budgets of the cost of living and the SG60 of 2025; led the party to 65.57% and 87 seats on 3 May 2025, his first election as leader, up from the 61.24% of 2020; the guitar of the videos |
| Cabinet | The second Wong Cabinet, sworn in on 23 May 2025 and reshuffled with effect from 27 July 2026 — Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, minister for trade and industry, the ministry to be renamed Energy, Trade and Industry from 1 October 2026; Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong; Senior Minister K. Shanmugam, coordinating minister for national security and minister for home affairs, raised to senior minister in the reshuffle; Chan Chun Sing, coordinating minister for public services and minister for defense; Ong Ye Kung, coordinating minister for social policies and minister for health; Vivian Balakrishnan, foreign affairs; Edwin Tong, law and second minister for home affairs; Desmond Lee, education; Jeffrey Siow, transport, a full minister from July 2026; Chee Hong Tat, national development; Tan See Leng, energy and industry, giving up manpower; Jasmin Lau, acting minister for manpower; Josephine Teo, digital development and information; Grace Fu, sustainability and the environment and trade relations; David Neo, culture, community and youth, a full minister from July 2026; Masagos Zulkifli, social and family development; Indranee Rajah and Ng Chee Meng in the Prime Minister's Office; Zaqy Mohamad acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs since Faishal Ibrahim resigned as minister and member of Parliament on 20 July 2026, "for personal reasons," after an investigation into a complaint found his conduct fell short of the standards expected, in the Prime Minister's words; Sim Ann second minister for foreign affairs and home affairs; the balance of "experienced leaders" and "a new generation" the prime minister spoke of |
| The 2025 election | The general election of 3 May 2025, the first under Wong — 97 seats in 33 divisions (18 GRCs, 15 single seats): the PAP 87 seats on 65.57% of the valid vote, up from 61.24% in 2020, every GRC and single seat but the Workers' Party's, the Marine Parade–Braddell Heights GRC uncontested on nomination day; the Workers' Party 10 seats — Aljunied GRC with 59.7%, Sengkang GRC and Hougang — on 14.99% of the national vote, and the two best-losing seats of Jalan Kayu (Andre Low, 48.5%) and Tampines GRC (Eileen Chong, 47.4%) as Non-Constituency Members; the Progress Singapore Party of Tan Cheng Bock lost the two NCMP seats of 2020; 211 candidates of 11 parties and independents; turnout 92.83% of 2.63 million voters, voting compulsory; the Elections Department of the Prime Minister's Office and the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee whose redrawing of March 2025 the opposition called gerrymandering and the government the growth of the towns (LAW 2); the 15th Parliament opened on 5 September 2025; the elections of 2020 (PAP 61.2%, 83 seats; WP 10), 2015 (69.9%), 2011 (60.1%, Aljunied lost, the first GRC), 2006, 2001, 1997, 1991 (the four opposition seats), 1988, 1984 (the two), 1980, 1976, 1972 and 1968 (the PAP every seat) |
| Parliament | The Parliament of Singapore — unicameral, in the Parliament House of 1999 by the Singapore River beside the old chamber of 1827: 97 members elected for five years by first past the post in the 18 Group Representation Constituencies of four or five members, each list with at least one Malay, Indian or other minority candidate, of 1988 and the 15 single-member constituencies; up to 12 Non-Constituency Members from the best losers of the opposition, 2 seated in 2025; 9 Nominated Members appointed for two and a half years by the president on a committee's advice, the nine of 12 January 2026; the Speaker Seah Kian Peng of the PAP since 2 August 2023 and again from 5 September 2025, the former chief of the NTUC FairPrice; the Leader of the House Indranee Rajah; the Leader of the Opposition — the post created for Pritam Singh in 2020 with the staff and the salary — vacant since 15 January 2026, when the House voted on 14 January on the government's motion that his conviction made him "unsuitable" and the prime minister removed him the next day, and the Workers' Party declined on 21 January the invitation to name another, holding that its own leader was the leader of the largest opposition party (LAW 2); the seat of Kembangan-Chai Chee in Marine Parade–Braddell Heights vacant since Faishal Ibrahim resigned on 20 July 2026, the four remaining members of the GRC covering it and no by-election required, in the government's reading of the law the opposition disputes; the mace of 1954; the Hansard in four languages |
| The Pritam Singh case | The leader of the Workers' Party, member for Aljunied since 2011 and secretary-general since 2018, convicted on 17 February 2025 of two charges of giving false evidence to Parliament's Committee of Privileges in December 2021 over what he had told the member Raeesah Khan, who had lied to the House about a rape case, to do about her lie — fined S$7,000 on each charge, the maximum, S$14,000 in all, below the S$10,000 on a single charge that would have disqualified him from the election of 2025, which he stood in and won with 59.7% in Aljunied; the conviction and the fines upheld by the High Court on 4 December 2025 after the hearing of 4 November; the motion of 14 January 2026 that removed him as Leader of the Opposition; the vote of confidence of the party's cadres of 28 June 2026 he won with about 80%; the government's case — that a leader who lied to Parliament cannot hold its second-highest post — and the party's — that the prosecution and the removal were political, the charge a matter for the voters who returned him — both stated (LAW 2) |
| The next elections | The presidential election due by 13 September 2029, the end of Tharman's six years, open to all races after the reserved election of 2017; the general election due by late 2030, five years from the first sitting of 5 September 2025 and the three months after dissolution; the succession within the PAP of the "4G" ministers of Wong's age and the "5G" behind them the reshuffle of July 2026 began to raise |
| The parties | The People's Action Party (PAP) of 21 November 1954 of Lee Kuan Yew, Toh Chin Chye, Goh Keng Swee and S. Rajaratnam, the party of every government since 5 June 1959, of the "men in white," of the cadre system and the secretary-general Lawrence Wong since 4 December 2024, 87 seats; the Workers' Party (WP) of 3 November 1957 of David Marshall, of J. B. Jeyaretnam's Anson by-election of 31 October 1981 that broke the PAP's monopoly, of Low Thia Khiang's Hougang of 1991 and Aljunied of 2011, the first GRC lost, and of Pritam Singh since 2018, 10 seats and 2 NCMPs, the chairman Sylvia Lim; the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) of 2019 of Dr. Tan Cheng Bock, the former PAP member who nearly won the presidency in 2011, 2 NCMPs of 2020 to 2025 (Leong Mun Wai, Hazel Poa) and none since; the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) of 1980 of Chiam See Tong and, since 1993, Dr. Chee Soon Juan; the Singapore People's Party of Chiam; the National Solidarity Party; the Red Dot United of 2020; the People's Power Party; the Singapore Democratic Alliance; the People's Alliance for Reform of 2023; the Barisan Sosialis of 1961 that split from the PAP, boycotted Parliament in 1966 and faded, and the Malayan Communist Party of the Emergency in the memory |
| Legal system | English common law of the colony, adapted by statute — the Supreme Court of the Court of Appeal and the High Court, with the Singapore International Commercial Court of 2015 and the Family Justice Courts, the State Courts of the magistrates and district judges, the Syariah Court for Muslim family law; the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon since 6 November 2012; the Attorney-General Lucien Wong since 2017; the jury abolished in 1969; the death penalty by hanging at Changi Prison for murder, kidnapping, firearms and drug trafficking above the thresholds of the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1973 — 15 g of heroin, 500 g of cannabis, 250 g of methamphetamine — mandatory since 1975 and discretionary in some cases since 2013, the executions resumed on 30 March 2022 after the pandemic pause, the government's case of deterrence and the abolitionists' case both made (LAW 2); the caning of the Vandalism Act of 1966 and of the Michael Fay case of 1994; the Internal Security Act of 1960 of detention without trial, of Operation Coldstore of 1963 and Operation Spectrum of 1987, used since against the Jemaah Islamiyah plotters of 2001 and the self-radicalized; the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) of 2 October 2019 of the correction notices; the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act of 2021; the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act of 1990; the Sedition Act repealed in 2021; Section 377A of the Penal Code on sex between men, the colonial law of 1938, repealed on 29 November 2022 with the constitutional protection of the definition of marriage; the chewing gum ban of 1992; the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau of 1952 and the conviction of the former transport minister S. Iswaran on 3 October 2024 to 12 months for obtaining gifts, the first minister jailed in decades; the Women's Charter of 1961; the defamation suits of the ministers the courts have upheld against the foreign press and the bloggers; among the safest cities of the world by the Economist's index |
| The reserves and the funds | The past reserves the Elected Presidency guards, their size undisclosed, "well over US$100 billion" for the GIC alone in the government's only phrase, some hundreds of billions of dollars in every estimate — managed by GIC (1981), the sovereign fund of the foreign reserves, Temasek Holdings (25 June 1974), the state holding company of a portfolio of S$434 billion at March 2025 that owns the stakes in Singapore Airlines, DBS, Singtel, SembCorp, Keppel and Mapletree, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, whose official foreign reserves stand above US$380 billion, among the largest per head in the world; the Net Investment Returns Contribution of up to half of the expected long-term returns of the three, S$28.5 billion in the budget of 2026, the largest single source of revenue; the drawdowns the presidents allowed — S$4.9 billion in the crisis of 2009 and the S$52 billion approved for the pandemic of 2020 to 2022, some S$40 billion of it drawn; the government's gross debt of about 170% of GDP all backed by assets, the Singapore Government Securities of the market and the Special Singapore Government Securities that hold the Central Provident Fund savings, no net debt and no borrowing for spending, the AAA of all three agencies, the only one in Asia |
| Defense | The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) of 9 August 1965 — the Army, the Republic of Singapore Navy, the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Digital and Intelligence Service of 2022; about 51,000 active and 252,500 reservists on the national service of 14 March 1967 — two years for every male citizen and permanent resident at 18 and the reservist call-ups to 40 or 50, built with the Israeli advisers of 1965 the government called "Mexicans"; the defense budget of S$24.9 billion for 2026, the largest of any ministry and about 3% of GDP, S$23.4 billion in 2025; the Chief of Defence Force Vice-Admiral Aaron Beng, the first from the navy, since 2023, the minister Chan Chun Sing; the F-15SG and F-16 squadrons, the 12 F-35Bs and 8 F-35As on order for delivery from 2026, the Invincible-class submarines of Germany's Type 218SG, the first two commissioned on 24 September 2024, the Formidable-class frigates, the Independence-class littoral vessels, the Leopard 2SG tanks, the Hunter and Terrex vehicles, the Aster and the Iron Dome missiles, the Heron drones; the training abroad for want of room — Shoalwater Bay and Pearce in Australia, Project Starlight in Taiwan since 1975, Cazaux in France, the United States and Brunei; the Five Power Defence Arrangements of 1971 with Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Britain; the American access to Changi and Sembawang of the memorandum of 1990, renewed in 2019 to 2035, and the littoral combat ships rotating through Changi; Total Defence of 1984; the Shangri-La Dialogue of the defense ministers of Asia every June since 2002; the "poisonous shrimp" of Lee Kuan Yew and the "porcupine" since |
| Foreign policy | "A friend to all and an enemy of none," the small state of the rules and the balance — a founder of ASEAN on 8 August 1967, its chair in 2027; the United States of the free trade agreement of 2004, the strategic partnership, the naval access and the 10% tariff of April 2025 laid on a country with which America runs a surplus and a free trade agreement, protested and negotiated; China, the largest trading partner, the diplomatic relations of 3 October 1990, the last of ASEAN to open them, the Suzhou Industrial Park of 1994 and the "all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership" of 2023, the "one China" and the Ma–Xi meeting Singapore hosted on 7 November 2015; Malaysia of the water agreement of 1962 that supplies 250 million gallons a day from the Johor River at 3 sen a thousand gallons to 2061 (the agreement of 1961 expired in 2011), the Pedra Branca judgment of 2008, the railway land settled in 2010, the high-speed rail Malaysia let lapse on 1 January 2021 at S$102.8 million in compensation, the RTS Link due in January 2027 and the Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone agreed on 7 January 2025 with Anwar Ibrahim; Indonesia of the sand, the haze, the airspace and the extradition and defense treaties in force since 21 March 2024; the Trump–Kim summit of 12 June 2018 at the Capella on Sentosa; the sanctions on Russia of March 2022 that no other ASEAN state joined; Israel of the arms and the training since 1965 and the Gaza war of 2023, on which the government backed a two-state solution and sent aid; India of the Tamil ties and the CECA of 2005; Japan; the Commonwealth; the Forum of Small States of 1992 Singapore founded at the UN; the passport ranked the strongest of the world by the Henley index of 2025; the diplomats Tommy Koh, Kishore Mahbubani and Bilahari Kausikan of the writing |
| United Nations | Member since 21 September 1965, the 117th; the Security Council seat of 2001 and 2002 and its presidency under Kishore Mahbubani; Tommy Koh the president of the Law of the Sea conference of 1981 and 1982 that wrote UNCLOS and of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992; the Singapore Convention on Mediation of 7 August 2019, the first UN treaty named for the city; the Forum of Small States; the UNESCO listings of 2015, 2020 and 2024; the International Court of Justice case of Pedra Branca of 2008; the WHO praise of the SARS and the pandemic responses; the peacekeepers of Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, the Gulf and the Iraq coalition |
| Other memberships | The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (1967, a founder); the Commonwealth (15 October 1965); the Non-Aligned Movement (1970); the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (1989, a founder; the summit of 2009); the World Trade Organization (1 January 1995; the Singapore ministerial of 1996); the Five Power Defence Arrangements (1971); the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (2018) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (2022); the 27 free trade agreements; the IMF and the World Bank (1966); the Asian Development Bank (1966) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (2015); the Bank for International Settlements (1996); the Financial Action Task Force (1992); the Global Governance Group (3G) of the small states at the G20; the Interpol Global Complex of 2015 in the city; the Indian Ocean Rim Association; the Asia-Europe Meeting (1996, the founding summit in Bangkok on Goh Chok Tong's idea) |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$604 billion (2025, IMF World Economic Outlook of April 2026); about US$660 billion forecast for 2026; about US$573 billion in 2024 — with Thailand the second-largest economy of Southeast Asia after Indonesia by the IMF's counts of 2024 and 2025, on a fraction of their people |
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| GDP per capita | About US$99,400 (2025); about US$108,000 forecast for 2026 — among the five highest of the world with Luxembourg, Ireland and Switzerland, and the highest of Asia |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$164,000 (2025); the GDP at purchasing power about US$1.0 trillion — the highest or the second-highest of any country by the IMF's counts, with Luxembourg, the count the encyclopedias carry as first |
| GDP growth | 4.4% in 2024, 5.0% in 2025 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry's release of 10 February 2026 and the IMF alike, and 4.5% to 5.5% forecast for 2026 by the ministry's upgrade of 11 August 2026 — from the 2% to 4% of February and the 1% to 3% before it — on the 6.1% of the first half and the 5.9% of the second quarter, the electronics and the precision engineering of the artificial-intelligence capital spending of the world, the finance and the wholesale trade, above the IMF's 3.5% of April; inflation 0.9% in 2025 with the core at 0.7%, from the 2.4% of 2024 and the 6.1% of 2022, 1.2% in December 2025; unemployment about 2%, the residents about 3%; the U.S. tariff of 10% on the exports of 2025 the economy grew through; the Monetary Authority's exchange-rate policy eased in 2025 and held in January 2026 |
| Economy by sector | Services about 72% of GDP — wholesale trade, finance and insurance, transport and storage, information and communications, business services, the tourism; industry about 24% — manufacturing about 18 to 20% led by the electronics of the semiconductor fabs and the equipment makers, the precision engineering, the chemicals and refining of Jurong Island, the biomedical of Tuas and Biopolis, the marine and offshore of Seatrium, the aerospace of Seletar, the construction of the flats; agriculture under 0.1% — the 30 by 30 food plan of the vertical farms and the fish farms of the strait; the state's share of the economy through the Temasek companies and the statutory boards larger than in any Western economy |
| Currency | Singapore dollar (SGD) — about 1.28 to the U.S. dollar in September 2026 within the year's band of 1.26 to 1.31; the Monetary Authority's S$NEER policy band since 1981; at par with the Brunei dollar |
| Finance | The financial center third or fourth of the world with Hong Kong after New York and London by the Global Financial Centres Index of 2025 — the Monetary Authority of Singapore (1971) as central bank and regulator, the Singapore Exchange (1999) of the SGX, the banks DBS, OCBC and UOB, the largest of Southeast Asia, and the 200 foreign banks of the Asian dollar market of 1968, the foreign-exchange market third of the world after London and New York by the BIS survey of 2022, the wealth management of the 2,000 single-family offices of the rich of Asia and the money-laundering case of 15 August 2023 of the S$3 billion of the ten Fujian-born, the largest in the country's history, that tightened the doors; the GIC and Temasek; the insurance and the reinsurance hub; the fintech of the Singapore FinTech Festival and the digital banks of 2022; the crypto exchanges licensed and the Three Arrows collapse of 2022; the gold and commodity trading; the corporate tax of 17%, the top personal rate of 24%, no capital gains tax, the GST of 9% since 1 January 2024 |
| Trade | Merchandise trade of about S$1.3 trillion a year, three times the economy — exports of about US$500 billion of goods and the world's largest transshipment trade through the port, the electronics and the integrated circuits first, the refined petroleum, the machinery, the pharmaceuticals, the chemicals, the gold; the partners — China first with Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United States, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, the EU; the non-oil domestic exports the statisticians watch; the entrepôt since 1819 of the free port of Raffles, no tariff on nearly anything; the 27 free trade agreements from the U.S. one of 2004 to the CPTPP, the RCEP and the EU's of 2019; the American tariff of 10% of 2025 on a surplus partner; the services exports of the finance, the transport and the tourism |
| Port, refining and the sea | The port second of the world by containers after Shanghai and first by transshipment and by shipping tonnage — 44.66 million TEUs in 2025, up 8.6% on the 41.12 million of 2024, 3.22 billion gross tons of ship arrivals, the largest bunkering port of the world at 56.77 million metric tons of marine fuel, the Singapore Registry of Ships at a record 137.46 million gross tons, connected to 600 ports in 120 countries; the Maritime and Port Authority of 1996 and PSA International, the port operator of 1964 that runs terminals in more than 40 countries; Jurong Island, the third-largest refining and petrochemical hub of the world after Houston and Rotterdam, the ExxonMobil refinery of 592,000 barrels a day the company's largest, the former Shell Bukom refinery sold in 2025 to the Chandra Asri and Glencore venture, the crackers of the plastics and the Asian oil trading of Platts' benchmarks; the Sembcorp and Keppel yards of the rigs and the Seatrium of their merger of 2023; the International Maritime Centre of the shipowners; the Straits of Malacca and Singapore patrols against the piracy |
| Industry | Electronics — about a tenth of the world's semiconductor output and a fifth of the chip-making equipment by the government's count, the fabs of Micron, GlobalFoundries, UMC, Systems on Silicon and the Applied Materials, Lam and ASML plants of the Economic Development Board's courting since 1961, the disk drives of the 1980s and 1990s that made the boom; the pharmaceuticals and biologics of Pfizer, GSK, Novartis, Sanofi and Amgen at Tuas, the vaccines; the aerospace maintenance of Seletar Aerospace Park, of ST Engineering, Rolls-Royce's Trent assembly and Pratt & Whitney; the precision engineering; the food of the Tiger beer, the kaya and the Yeo's; the Jurong Town Corporation of 1968 and the industrial estates from Jurong to Tuas, the Tuas Biomedical Park and the Punggol Digital District; the Temasek companies — Singapore Airlines, Singtel, SembCorp, Keppel, CapitaLand, Mapletree, PSA, ST Engineering, SATS; the data centers of the Southeast Asian internet, capped for the power |
| Tourism | 16.9 million international visitors in 2025, up 2.3% and short of the 19.1 million of 2019, from China (3.1 million), Indonesia (2.4 million), Malaysia and Australia (1.3 million each) and India (1.2 million); receipts of about S$30 billion for the year by the Tourism Board's projection, S$23.9 billion in the first three quarters, up 6.5%; the forecast of 17 to 18 million visitors and S$31 to 32.5 billion for 2026; the two integrated resorts licensed in 2005 — Resorts World Sentosa of Genting (14 February 2010) with Universal Studios and the S.E.A. Aquarium and Marina Bay Sands of Las Vegas Sands (27 April 2010) of the three towers and the SkyPark, the fourth tower and the arena due 2029 — that the government allowed casinos for after 40 years of refusal, with the S$150 levy on the locals; the Jewel of Changi (2019), Gardens by the Bay, the Merlion, Sentosa's beaches, Orchard Road, the Night Safari, the hawker centers, the Formula One weekend of September, the Taylor Swift exclusive of March 2024 that filled the hotels, the MICE trade of the conventions at Suntec, Marina Bay Sands and the Expo; the cruise hub |
| Energy and water | Electricity about 95% from natural gas — the piped gas of Indonesia and Malaysia and the liquefied gas of the Jurong Island terminal of 2013, the imports of Laos hydropower through Thailand and Malaysia since 2022 and the plan of 6 GW of low-carbon imports by 2035 from Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Australia's Sun Cable of the desert solar; solar 2 GWp by 2030 on the roofs and the reservoirs; the carbon tax of 1 January 2019, the first of Southeast Asia, S$5 a metric ton raised to S$25 for 2024 and 2025, S$45 for 2026 and 2027 and S$50 to 80 by 2030; the nuclear study of the small modular reactors; net zero by 2050; water — the "four national taps": the rain of the 17 reservoirs on two-thirds of the land, the 250 million gallons a day of Johor of the agreement of 1962 to 2061, the NEWater of the five recycling plants since 2003 that meets 40% of demand and the five desalination plants that meet a quarter, the demand of about 440 million gallons a day set to double by 2065; the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System; the Tuas Nexus plant of the 2020s; the Semakau landfill, the only one, full by 2035, and the incinerators |
| Public finances | The budget of 12 February 2026 for the year from April — spending S$137.3 billion, 16.3% of GDP and up 10.3%, revenue S$134.8 billion, the Net Investment Returns Contribution of S$28.5 billion from the reserves, the surplus of S$8.6 billion or 1% of GDP after the S$15.1 billion surplus of 2025, the defense S$24.9 billion, the health above S$20 billion and rising with the age, the education, the CDC and SG60 vouchers of the cost of living; the constitutional rule of a balanced budget over each term of government; the revenue of the corporate tax, the GST of 9%, the income tax, the vehicle taxes and the land sales that go to the reserves; the Central Provident Fund of 1955 of the 37% of wages for housing, health and retirement, S$600 billion of balances; no unemployment benefit but the Workfare and the SkillsFuture credits and the "Jobseeker Support" of 2025; the ministers' pay pegged to the top private earners; the AAA rating; the Economic Development Board of 1961, the Jurong Town Corporation, the Housing Board and the Monetary Authority of the "developmental state" of Goh Keng Swee and Albert Winsemius' plan of 1961 |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an advanced economy (IMF); the one developed economy of Southeast Asia |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), opened on 1 July 1981 on the reclaimed east in place of Paya Lebar — 69.98 million passengers in 2025, up 3.4% and a record, 374,000 aircraft movements, 2.08 million metric tons of cargo, some 100 airlines to more than 170 cities with 13 destinations added in 2025, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jakarta the busiest routes; the four terminals of 90 million capacity, the Jewel of 17 April 2019 with the 40-meter HSBC Rain Vortex, the world's tallest indoor waterfall, and Terminal 5 begun on 14 May 2025 on the Changi East reclamation for 50 million more in the mid-2030s with the third runway; Skytrax's World's Best Airport for the 14th time in 2026; Changi Airport Group of 2009; Seletar Airport of 1928 for the turboprops, the private jets and the Firefly flights; Paya Lebar and Tengah the air bases; Singapore Airlines of 1 October 1972 from the split of Malaysia–Singapore Airlines, the A350s and A380s, the world's longest scheduled flight to New York of 18 hours and more, Skytrax's best airline of 2023, the SQ321 turbulence of 21 May 2024, and Scoot, its low-cost arm; the SIA Group's stake in Air India |
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| Ports | The Port of Singapore of PSA — the container terminals of Tanjong Pagar (the first, 23 June 1972), Keppel, Brani and Pasir Panjang along the southern shore, moving one by one to Tuas Port in the far west, the automated mega-port opened on 1 September 2022 with three berths, 14 berths at work in 2026 and 18 by 2027, the first phase completed in August 2026 with 208 automated yard cranes, the second phase from 2028 and the four phases to a capacity of 65 million TEUs in the 2040s, the largest fully automated terminal of the world, the city terminals' land to become the Greater Southern Waterfront; 44.66 million TEUs in 2025, the second port of the world after Shanghai and the first by transshipment; Jurong Port of the bulk and the cement; the Sembawang wharves of the old naval base; the Marina Bay Cruise Centre of 2012 and the HarbourFront terminal; the ferries to Batam, Bintan and Tanjung Pinang; the bunkering anchorages of the 56.77 million metric tons; the Maritime and Port Authority |
| Railways | The Mass Rapid Transit of 7 November 1987, the day the first trains ran from Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh — six lines of about 240 km and more than 140 stations: the North–South and East–West of 1987 to 1990, the North East of 2003, the first driverless heavy line, the Circle of 2009 closed into a full loop on 12 July 2026 when the sixth stage from Marina Bay to HarbourFront opened, the Downtown of 2013 and the Thomson–East Coast of 2020 whose last stage to Sungei Bedok is due in 2026; 3.49 million rides a day in 2025 by SMRT Trains and SBS Transit; the three LRT lines of Bukit Panjang (1999), Sengkang (2003) and Punggol (2005); the Jurong Region Line due from 2028 and the Cross Island Line from 2030, the network to reach 360 km by the early 2030s; the Johor Bahru–Singapore RTS Link of 4 km from Woodlands North to Bukit Chagar across the strait, 10,000 passengers an hour each way on eight driverless trains, 90% built in April 2026 and due to open in January 2027; the KTM shuttle from Woodlands to Johor Bahru since 2015 after the Tanjong Pagar station of 1932 closed on 30 June 2011; the high-speed line to Kuala Lumpur agreed in 2016 and ended by Malaysia on 1 January 2021; the Causeway of 1924 and the Second Link of 2 January 1998 |
| Roads | About 3,500 km (2,200 mi) of roads, all paved, on 12% of the land — the ten expressways of some 165 km from the Pan Island Expressway of 1981, the oldest and the longest at 43 km, to the Marina Coastal of 2013 and the North–South Corridor due by 2029; the vehicle quota of 1 May 1990 of the Certificate of Entitlement, the ten-year permit auctioned twice a month at above S$100,000 for a car, the Electronic Road Pricing of 1998 of the gantries and the satellite units of 2023 to 2025, a fleet held at about a million vehicles of some 650,000 cars for 6.2 million people and the zero growth of the car population since 2018; the 5,800 buses of the contracting model of 2016 of SBS Transit, SMRT, Tower Transit and Go-Ahead, the 13,000 taxis and the Grab cars; left-hand driving; the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints of the 300,000 crossings a day to Johor, the Woodlands rebuild of the 2020s; the cycling paths of the "car-lite" plan; the Land Transport Authority of 1995 and the "45-minute city" of the master plan of 2040 |
| City transport | The MRT and the buses of the 7.5 million rides a day on the EZ-Link and SimplyGo cards; the bus interchanges of every new town; the taxis of ComfortDelGro; the Sentosa Express monorail of 2007 and the cable car of 1974 from Mount Faber; the river boats of the Singapore River; the Bukit Timah and Rail corridors of the walkers; the Park Connector Network; the electric buses of the fleet to 2040 and the autonomous shuttles of Punggol's trials |
| Utilities | SP Group of the grid and the gas, the Energy Market Authority of 2001 and the open electricity market of 2018; the PUB of the water since 1963; the National Environment Agency of the incinerators, the Semakau landfill and the hawker centers; the telephones of Singtel, StarHub, M1 and Simba, the 5G across the island since 2025, the fiber of the Nationwide Broadband Network to every home since 2013, the 25 submarine cables that make the internet hub of Southeast Asia; Smart Nation of 2014, the Singpass of every citizen, the digital identity and the TraceTogether of the pandemic; the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System; the district cooling of Marina Bay; the Changi and Tuas power stations; the pneumatic waste chutes of the new estates |
| The country | Marina Bay — the Sands of 2010 and the 200-meter SkyPark, the Merlion, the Esplanade's durian domes, the Gardens by the Bay and the Supertrees, the Singapore Flyer of 2008 at 165 m, the ArtScience Museum, the Helix Bridge, the fireworks of National Day and the New Year; the Padang and the National Gallery; the Singapore River of Boat Quay and Clarke Quay; Chinatown of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple of 2007 and the Thian Hock Keng, Little India of the Sri Veeramakaliamman and Tekka, Kampong Glam of the Sultan Mosque and Haji Lane; Orchard Road; the Raffles Hotel of 1887 and the Long Bar; the Botanic Gardens; Sentosa of Universal Studios, the beaches and Fort Siloso; the Mandai zoos; Pulau Ubin and the Chek Jawa wetlands; Haw Par Villa; the Changi Chapel and Museum, the Battlebox of Fort Canning, the Kranji War Cemetery; the Katong shophouses and the Peranakan Museum; the Southern Ridges and the Henderson Waves; the hawker halls of Maxwell, Lau Pa Sat, Old Airport Road and Newton; East Coast Park; the Jewel |
History in dates
| 3rd century | A Chinese account of "Pu Luo Chung," the island at the peninsula's end |
|---|---|
| c. 1299 | Sang Nila Utama founds Singapura — the Malay Annals |
| 1330s | Wang Dayuan records Temasek |
| c. 1398 | Singapura sacked; Parameswara flees to found Malacca |
| 1613 | The Portuguese burn the settlement |
| 1819 | Raffles lands, 28–29 January; the treaty, 6 February |
| 1824 | The Anglo-Dutch Treaty, 17 March; the island ceded, 2 August |
| 1826 | The Straits Settlements |
| 1867 | The crown colony, 1 April |
| 1869 | The Suez Canal opens |
| 1877 | The rubber seedlings at the Botanic Gardens |
| 1915 | The Sepoy mutiny, 15 February |
| 1924 | The Causeway opens, 28 June |
| 1938 | The Sembawang naval base, 14 February |
| 1942 | The fall of Singapore, 15 February; Syonan-to; the Sook Ching |
| 1945 | The Japanese surrender at City Hall, 12 September |
| 1946 | The Colony of Singapore, 1 April |
| 1948 | The first election, 20 March; the Emergency, June |
| 1954 | The PAP founded, 21 November |
| 1955 | The Rendel election, 2 April — David Marshall; the Hock Lee riots, 12 May |
| 1959 | Self-government, 3 June; Lee Kuan Yew sworn in, 5 June; the flag, crest and anthem, 3 December |
| 1960 | The Housing and Development Board, 1 February |
| 1961 | The Bukit Ho Swee fire, 25 May; the Water Agreement, 1 September |
| 1962 | The merger referendum, 1 September |
| 1963 | Operation Coldstore, 2 February; Malaysia, 16 September |
| 1964 | The race riots, 21 July and 2 September; the Merlion logo |
| 1965 | The MacDonald House bomb, 10 March; independence, 9 August; the UN, 21 September; the republic, 22 December |
| 1966 | The National Pledge, 24 August |
| 1967 | National service, 14 March; the Brunei currency pact, 12 June; ASEAN, 8 August |
| 1968 | The British withdrawal announced, 16 January; the PAP wins every seat, 13 April |
| 1971 | The MAS, 1 January; the British forces leave, 31 October; the FPDA |
| 1972 | The first container ship at Tanjong Pagar, 23 June; the Merlion, 15 September; SIA, 1 October |
| 1974 | The Laju hijacking, 31 January; Temasek, 25 June |
| 1981 | Vanda Miss Joaquim, 15 April; Changi Airport, 1 July; Jeyaretnam wins Anson, 31 October |
| 1987 | Operation Spectrum, 21 May; the MRT, 7 November |
| 1990 | The COE, 1 May; China ties, 3 October; Goh Chok Tong, 28 November |
| 1993 | Ong Teng Cheong, the first elected president, 1 September |
| 1998 | The Second Link, 2 January; "little red dot" |
| 2003 | SARS, March to May — 33 dead; NEWater, 21 February |
| 2004 | Lee Hsien Loong, 12 August; the U.S. free trade agreement in force, 1 January |
| 2008 | Pedra Branca, 23 May; the night race, 28 September; the Marina Barrage, 31 October |
| 2010 | Resorts World, 14 February; Marina Bay Sands, 27 April; the Youth Olympics, 14–26 August |
| 2011 | Aljunied falls to the Workers' Party, 7 May; Tanjong Pagar station closes, 30 June |
| 2015 | Lee Kuan Yew dies, 23 March; the Botanic Gardens inscribed, 4 July; SG50, 9 August; Ma–Xi, 7 November |
| 2016 | Schooling's gold, 12 August |
| 2017 | Halimah Yacob, the reserved election, 14 September |
| 2018 | Trump–Kim at the Capella, 12 June |
| 2019 | The Jewel, 17 April; the carbon tax, 1 January; POFMA, 2 October |
| 2020 | The circuit breaker, 7 April; the election, 10 July; hawker culture inscribed, 16 December |
| 2022 | Wong the 4G leader, 14 April; Tuas Port, 1 September; Section 377A repealed, 29 November |
| 2023 | Iswaran arrested, 11 July; the money-laundering raids, 15 August; Tharman elected, 1 September |
| 2024 | GST 9%, 1 January; Wong prime minister, 15 May; the submarines, 24 September; Iswaran jailed, 3 October; the kebaya, 4 December |
| 2025 | The SEZ pact, 7 January; Pritam Singh convicted, 17 February; the election, 3 May; Terminal 5 begun, 14 May; the cabinet, 23 May; SG60, 9 August; Parliament opens, 5 September; the appeal fails, 4 December |
| 2026 | Pritam Singh removed as Leader of the Opposition, 15 January; the budget, 12 February; the Circle Line closed, 12 July; Faishal resigns, 20 July; the reshuffle, 27 July; the 4.5–5.5% forecast, 11 August; the fertility rate of 0.87, 25 September |
Records & firsts
| The world's busiest transshipment port | 44.66 million TEUs, 2025 |
|---|---|
| The world's largest bunkering port | 56.77 million metric tons, 2025 |
| The World's Best Airport | Changi, 14 times to 2026 |
| The world's longest scheduled flight | SIA to New York, 18 hours-plus |
| The highest GDP per head at purchasing power | About US$164,000, 2025 |
| Asia's only AAA sovereign | S&P, Moody's, Fitch |
| The first Formula One night race | 28 September 2008 |
| The first Youth Olympic Games | August 2010 |
| The world's tallest indoor waterfall | The Rain Vortex, 40 m, 2019 |
| The first approval of cultivated meat | 2 December 2020 |
| The first carbon tax of Southeast Asia | 1 January 2019 |
| The second-densest sovereign state | About 8,300 per km² |
| Among the lowest fertility rates | 0.87, 2025 |
| Among the longest lives | About 84 years |
| The first tropical botanic garden on the World Heritage list | 4 July 2015 |
| The world's strongest passport | Henley index, 2025 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Singapore?
The Republic of Singapore — Republik Singapura in Malay, the national language, 新加坡共和国 in Chinese and சிங்கப்பூர் குடியரசு in Tamil, its four official languages — the name of the state that left Malaysia on 9 August 1965 and declared itself a republic by the Act of 22 December 1965, after the self-governing State of Singapore of 3 June 1959, the Crown Colony of 1946, the Straits Settlements of 1826 and the trading post Sir Stamford Raffles founded by his treaty of 6 February 1819 with Sultan Hussein Shah and the Temenggong of Johor. The name is Sanskrit: "Singapura," the "lion city," from siṃha and pura, the name the Malay Annals give to the settlement a Srivijayan prince, Sang Nila Utama, is said to have founded about 1299 when he saw an animal he took for a lion; the island had been Temasek, "sea town," to the Javanese and the Chinese before that. No lion ever lived on the island; the animal, if there was one, was probably a tiger.
What is the capital of Singapore?
Singapore itself — the country is a city-state, one city on one main island and some 60 islets, with no capital distinct from the whole. The seat of the state is the Downtown Core on the south shore of the main island, where Raffles landed at the mouth of the Singapore River on 28 or 29 January 1819: Parliament House of 1999 by the river, the Istana of 1869 on Orchard Road where the president and the prime minister have their offices, the Supreme Court of 2005, the Padang of the parades and the Marina Bay of the towers. The people live in the new towns of the Housing and Development Board that ring the island — Bedok, Tampines, Jurong West, Sengkang and Woodlands each of some 250,000 or more, Hougang, Yishun, Punggol, Choa Chu Kang and Ang Mo Kio behind them — four in five households in public flats they own, planned since 1960 on 55 planning areas in five regions.
How big is Singapore, and how many people live there?
About 744 km² (287 sq mi) — 744.3 km² by the Department of Statistics' count for 2026, up from about 580 km² in the 1960s by the reclamation that built Changi, Jurong Island, Marina Bay and Tuas from the sea — the second-smallest state of Asia after the Maldives and among the 20 smallest of the world, a diamond of a main island 50 km from east to west and 27 km from north to south at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 km north of the equator. The Department of Statistics counted 6,208,500 people at the end of June 2026 — 3,684,900 citizens, 546,600 permanent residents and about 1.98 million foreigners on work and study passes — against 5,685,807 at the census of 2020, about 8,300 to the square kilometer, the second-densest sovereign state of the world after Monaco. Of the residents, by the census, 74.3% are Chinese, 13.5% Malay, 9.0% Indian and 3.2% others; the median age is 43.6, the fertility rate fell to 0.87 in 2025, and about one in five citizens is 65 or older.
What are the highest and lowest points of Singapore?
Bukit Timah Hill, 163.63 m (537 ft), the granite hill at the center of the island in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve of 1883, one of the first forest reserves of the empire, 163 hectares of the rainforest that once covered the island with more tree species than the whole of North America; Bukit Gombak of 133 m, Bukit Panjang and Mount Faber of 105 m above the harbor follow, the rest of the island low and undulating at a mean of about 15 m, the sedimentary ridges of Jurong in the west and the flat old alluvium of the east. The lowest point is the sea — the Singapore Strait to the south and the Straits of Johor to the north, 193 km of coast by the Factbook count that reclamation keeps redrawing. Between them lie 17 reservoirs on two-thirds of the land, the mangroves of Sungei Buloh, the 2,880 hectares of the Central Catchment around MacRitchie, and the islands of Jurong, Tekong, Ubin and Sentosa.
What currency does Singapore use?
The Singapore dollar (ISO code SGD, S$), of 100 cents, issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the central bank of 1971 that absorbed the Board of Commissioners of Currency in 2002 — the dollar of 1967 that replaced the Malaya and British Borneo dollar when the currency union with Malaysia broke, interchangeable at par with the Brunei dollar under the agreement of 12 June 1967 that still stands, so that either country's notes pass in the other. It trades at about 1.28 to the U.S. dollar in September 2026, managed by the MAS not through an interest rate but through the exchange rate, the trade-weighted band of the S$NEER it lets appreciate or hold; the notes of the Portrait series of 1999 carry Yusof Ishak, the first president, from the S$2 to the S$1,000, the S$10,000 withdrawn in 2014. Clocks keep Singapore Standard Time, UTC+8, since 1 January 1982, an hour ahead of the sun; Singapore drives on the left, and a car needs a Certificate of Entitlement of the vehicle quota of 1990 that costs about as much as the car.
Who governs Singapore?
A parliamentary republic on the Westminster pattern under the Constitution of 1965: the president is head of state, directly elected for six years since 1991 with a veto over the spending of the past reserves and the key public appointments, and the prime minister who commands Parliament heads the government. On 26 September 2026 the president is Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the economist and former deputy prime minister elected on 1 September 2023 with 70.4% and sworn in on 14 September 2023, the ninth president; the prime minister is Lawrence Wong of the People's Action Party, since 15 May 2024 the fourth after Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Hsien Loong, who led the party to 87 of the 97 seats and 65.57% of the vote at the election of 3 May 2025 — the party's 16th consecutive win since 1959 — with Gan Kim Yong as deputy prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong and K. Shanmugam as senior ministers and Seah Kian Peng as Speaker; the Workers' Party of Pritam Singh holds the other ten seats and two non-constituency seats, its leader removed from the post of Leader of the Opposition by the House on 15 January 2026 over his conviction for lying to a parliamentary committee, a step the government called a matter of standards and the party called political. The next general election is due by late 2030, the next presidential election by September 2029.
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