Singapore residents have made significant progress in household income: Census 2020

Singapore residents have made significant progress in household income and education over the last 10 years. 

With the overall median household income rising by 1.9 per cent per year, residents among all major ethnic groups have experienced growth in their household incomes.

This was among the findings in the second release of the Department of Statistic’s Census of Population 2020. While the first release was about demographic characteristics, education, language and religion, the second one focuses on households, geographic distribution, transport and difficulty in basic activities.

The census also revealed that the proportion of owner-occupied households remained high at 87.9 per cent. About 78.7 per cent of resident households stayed in HDB flats, and 31.6 per cent lived in four-room HDB flats. 

Meanwhile, the percentage of households residing in condominiums increased from 11.5 per cent in 2010 to 16.0 per cent in 2020. The percentage of those staying in landed properties remained the same at 5.0 per cent.

As there are fewer couple-based households with children, households with at least one family nucleus made up 78.0 per cent of resident households in 2020, down from 82.9 per cent in 2010.  

With more females working, the proportion of married couples with an employed wife increased from 52.9 per cent to 60.0 per cent. In total, working couples made up 52.5 per cent of married couples in 2020.

The census showed that Bedok was the most populated area of residence with 276,990 residents. It was followed closely by Jurong West, Tampines and Woodlands, which each have more than 250,000 residents. 

Outram had the highest percentage of residents aged 65 and older at 25.5 per cent, while Punggol had the highest percentage of residents below 5 years old at 9.3 per cent.

About 284,000 employed residents’ workplace was located at Downtown Core, making up 12.9 per cent of the resident workforce. Other popular workplace locations were Queenstown, Geylang and Bukit Merah, which each had more than 100,000 residents.

Employed residents mostly relied on public transport to travel to work, with 57.7 per cent taking public buses, MRTs and LRTs.

About 2.5 per cent of residents aged 5 and older found it difficult or were not able to perform at least one basic activity. Of the 97,600 residents, 62,500 struggled with activities related to mobility and 32,100 struggled with self-care activities.

Among those residents between 15 and 64 years old, 31.2 per cent were in the labour force. 93.6 per cent of the residents aged 65 and older were living with other persons.