Country Comments

Singapore, an island nation off the southern tip of Malaysia, is home to almost six million citizens. Based on its geographical size and renewable resource base it is far too small to allow that many citizens to live sustainably.

The country is highly dependent on imports of all kinds of goods and services even including fresh water of which it purchases half of the water it consumes from Malaysia just to its North.

With a rising per capita national income equal to the United States, huge consumption has led to a greater volume of wastes and the need for better waste and pollution management in air and water quality.

Singapore has had one of the lowest total fertility rates in the world with the last decade averaging under 1.25 children per woman. However the decline in births has been offset by significant immigration over the decades contributing to as much as two thirds of the increase of its annual population growth. The government has curbed immigration in recent years and has taken more aggressive measures to encourage couples to have children with incentives to families that include housing, preschool, and transportation benefits without any thought to the long term consequences to the health and sustainability of its people and country.