People First: Singapore's changing population

Singapore is on its way to achieving its stated population target of 6 million. This figure has symbolic importance to a city state that wants to ape Hong Kong which has a similar number.

But it is reaching its target by immigration as much as by an increase in "home grown" population.

The number of permanent residents has almost doubled in the past decade.

Singapore has traditionally been a city with a predominantly ethnic Chinese population. But in the past decade, the share of Chinese in the PR mix has dropped significantly - from 76.1% to 61.4%.

The logical assumption is that this swing is due to increased population in the minority Malay population - in neighbouring Malaysia, the Malay population has increased over the same period.

But, in fact, the numbers show a very different pattern: the percentage of Indians in the mix has risen from 14.9% to 20.4% over the same period. The percentage of Malays has, like the percentage of Chinese, reduced - from 4.1 to 3%.

Although most of those of Chinese background come from Malaysia, most of the Indians come from India.

Recently, the Singaporean government reduced the planned number of PRs it would grant in the face of unusually stiff public opinion who argued that incomers were taking up inexpensive property and driving Singaporeans so far up market they could not afford to buy.

That, to a degree, is in part due to that envy of Hong Kong: in the mid 2000s when Singapore's house price inflation was a fraction of that in Hong Kong, the Singapore government specifically sought to match the price rises in Hong Kong, aiming to have property prices similar to those in its regional rival. Prices have now reached levels comparable with those in London.