Singapore Ranked 3rd in World population density...

[xev]

Rank Country Population Area (km?) Density
World 6,445,398,968 510,072,000 13
1 Macau 449,198 25.40 17,685
2 Monaco 32,409 1.95 16,620
3 Singapore 4,425,720 692.70 6,389
4 Hong Kong 6,898,686 1,092 6,317
5 Gibraltar 27,884 6.50 4,290
6 Gaza Strip 1,376,289 360 3,823
7 Vatican City 921 0.44 2,093
8 Malta 398,534 316 1,261
9 Bermuda 65,365 53.30 1,226

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lation_density

Was surprised we ranked higher than Hong Kong...

Sometimes i feel like its just a bit tad crowded for my liking ..

[Tea]

we have lots of foreigners living with us, that's why. No thanks to the government.

[vantastica]

Yeah, that's surprising news. I thought it's probably China or somewhere else. Hmm, but at least they have a vast land to offset for the overall density. So gotta consider the tiny size of our island too.

Guess we can never escape from crowds totally. :roll: But I feel that our govt has managed this high population density pretty well. So that I don't actually feel perpetually 'crowded around' in a sense. Take our MRT for example, in peak hours. No doubt its super crowded, but it's not so bad to the extent commuters squeezed against each other like sardines and require manual 'pushers' to push commuters through the MRT doors, like in some countries.

[Aphrael]

The thing with Hongkong is that alot of the land is hilly and they can't fully utilize it for residential purposes. So if you take the effective land area, the population density would be higher than us. However, that's not how it's calculated and then again, it holds true for most cities. Where did Japan go?

[xev]

No Worries Glossie...

You could always migrate to new zealand...and run barefoot in miles and miles of beautiful grasslands..

[stilafaux]

Oh yes Aphrael, I was thinking why japan was not in the ranks

Singapore.. definitely really populated. All the foriegners and foreign talent the government is trying to bring in and such. :roll:

a little OT but the cars here in SG are definitely overwhelming!!!
No thanks to the drop in car pricings.

[Aphrael]

NZ is boring ... no offence to Kiwis. Even Sydney is boring though I lived there for 8 years.

Slightly OT, but considering how crowded we are the government still wants more people to come in?

Only recently did Donald Tsang (HK guy) announce that it would be in HK's best interests for people to have 3 kids. That's the "ideal" number. It takes 250K to raise a kid to adulthood and conservatively have local tertiary education. Maybe I overestimated but considering how high living costs are it's not far off. If you want to go overseas, it's about another 100K for a 3 year degree say in Australia, one of the cheaper "Western" countries. How many people can realistically afford that? It's also what the Singapore government wants.

Before Singapore becomes a gracious society, and it is far from becoming one, I really will not consider having any children.

[shan]

no doubt singapore are increasing populated, the govt still encourage singaporean women to give birth, no?

[natnatviv]

actually think of it, if there is no migrants coming in, singapore will be scarcely populated.
not enough pple -> not enough jobs created -> economy will not prosper?

the singapore govt is still encouraging birth mainly bcos of the fact, we are in an ageing population stage

[Aphrael]

Most developed countries have aging populations. By 2030 I think Singapore will have one of the greyest population with more than 50% of people over age 65. Which is why the government is raising the retirement age, encouraging people get health insurance etc. If the government had been farsighted enough, it'd have encouraged people to stop at 3 instead of 2. Many of my age are from single-child families because the campaign was so successful. (As an aside, China will face the greying population on a much much bigger scale than we will. Our economy will lose its competitive edge, but so will most other aging economies.)

Given the cost of living today, it's unlikely that all families can realistically afford to have 3 or more children. I will likely only have 2-3 if I decide to have any, which is unlikely at the moment seeing how much pressure kids nowadays have to face and the paper chase. In wanting to give them the best, the number will have to go down. Quality over quantity. The replacement level is 2.1, and the total fertility rate is way lower than that. It's a worldwide trend and it's just not going to change unless the environment changes on a global level. Salaries in say HK are going down with fresh grads earning around HKD$6000-7000, which is worse than the S$2500 we have here at the moment. Many industries are looking to China for cheap labor, leaving us with only a few more specialised forms of skill to compete, e.g. R & D, IT. Which China will catch up with in a few years seeing they have over 20 million university grads which are the cream of the crop. And it's back to the paper chase for us, because without good grades, which may not necessarily mean anything in life, we will not have a competitive edge. I'm not sure I want to put my children through that. I'd rather take care of my parents as best as I can and have noone to take care of me in my old age. Just gotta make more money while I can and make provisions for necessary expenses when I no longer have the ability to do so.

And then when China's populations greys (well, not that likely since so many of them smoke and will die of lung cancer in astronomical proportions before they reach old age) where are we going to find the labor force to support the entire greying world? Maybe India, which will be the most populated place in the world by 2030. We're going way down ...

Unless First Contact with the Vulcans actually happen in 2063 like on Star Trek and humanity finds new hope. OK, j/k.

Maybe it will get better, maybe not. I can't even bear to think about it. I think WAYYYYY too much. Sorry, guys.