Parliamentary reply by DPM Teo Chee Hean on ethnicity of Singapore residents listed under “others” in ethnic category
THIRTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE
WRITTEN ANSWER
MONDAY, 1 APRIL 2019
Ms Anthea Ong:
To ask the Prime Minister for each year in 2017 and 2018 (a) how many Singapore residents are listed under “Others” in the ethnic category of official documents such as birth certificates and NRICs; (b) what are all the ethnicities and their numbers that make up “Others”; and (c) what is the percentage for each of the categories in the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Others (CMIO) model.
Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister):
Table 1 below shows the ethnic composition of the Singapore citizen population in 2017 and 2018.
Table 1: Ethnic Composition of Singapore’s Citizen Population (%), as of end-June[1]
| 2017 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 76.1 | 76.1 |
| Malay | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Indian | 7.4 | 7.5 |
| Others | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Total | 100 | 100 |
Table 2 below shows the number of Singapore citizens listed under the “Others” ethnic category in 2017 and 2018.
Table 2: Number of Citizens in “Others” Ethnic Category, as of end-June[2]
| 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|
| 50,800 | 52,100 |
Table 3 below shows the breakdown of the six prevalent ethnicities in the citizen population under “Others”, based on the latest available data from the General Household Survey of 2015.
Table 3: Singapore’s Citizen Population in “Others” Ethnic Category by Ethnic Group, June 2015[3]
| Ethnic Group "Others" | Citizens |
|---|---|
| Total | 48,300 |
| Eurasian | 15,300 |
| Filipino | 6,300 |
| Caucasian | 8,600 |
| Arab | 8,200 |
| Thai | 1,700 |
| Japanese | 1,400 |
| Others | 6,900 |
[1] Source: Department of Statistics. Data do not add up to total due to rounding.
[2] Source: Department of Statistics. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest ’00. Data are based on the de jure concept (i.e. the person’s place of usual residence), which includes Singapore residents with local addresses and who were not away from Singapore for a continuous period of 12 months or longer as at the reference period (i.e end June).
[3] Source: General Household Survey 2015, Department of Statistics. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest ’00, and do not add up to total due to rounding.