Singapore's Population Statistics - The Rise of Foreign Talent

Singapore adopts an open immigration policy with a strong belief in attracting “foreign talent” to drive the country's economic growth. As shown below, this has contributed to a consistent growth in the number of non-residents in Singapore since 2003, rising from 748 million to about 1,005 million in 2007, for an annual growth rate of about 7.7%.


The % of the Singapore Population who are non-residents has also been on the rise, recently breaking through the 20% mark in 2007 to 21.48%.

At the current rate, the % of foreigners in Singapore looks set to rise significantly, as the country continues to import "foreign talent" - both cheap foreign labour and senior executives - to boost the population and to drive the country towards a knowledge-based economy, and target wealthy foreigners to grow its tourism, private banking and premium real estate businesses.

The % of foreigners in the country could easily rise to 25%, and even 30-35% in the coming years.

All statistics are publicly available from SingStat.