The life expectancy of Singaporeans has improved slightly, where those born last year can expect to live up to 81.4 years compared with 80.9 years in 2008, according to a latest population trends report.

The Singapore Statistics Department, which released the report on the city-state's population trends today, said females could expect to live longer than males.

The department said a girl born in 2009 could expect to live an average of 83.7 years, in contrast to 79.0 years for a boy born in the same year.

Life expectancy at age 65 years also improved, it said.

In 2009, male and female residents aged 65 years old could expect to live an average of 17.9 and 21.2 more years respectively, compared with the corresponding 17.5 and 20.8 more years in 2008.

However, it said, the infant mortality rate in 2009 was 2.2 infant deaths per 1,000 resident live-births, slightly higher than in 2008.

More baby girls than boys survived their first year in 2009, with the infant mortality rate for females being 1.7 per 1,000 resident live-births compared with 2.6 per 1,000 resident live-births for males, it added.

On birth and fertility rates, the department reported that total live-births declined by 0.6 per cent to 39,570 in 2009, after increasing for the past four years.

Resident births (i.e. births with at least one parent who is a Singapore citizen or permanent resident) also declined, from 37,277 in 2008 to 36,925 in 2009.

Singapore's resident total fertility rate (TFR) continued to decline further, from 1.28 births per female in 2008 to 1.22 births per female in 2009.

The resident TFR declined for the three major races, with the TFR for the Chinese standing at 1.08, lower than that for Malays (1.82) and Indians (1.14) in 2009.

A total of 26,081 marriages were registered in 2009, up from 24,596 in 2008, the department said, adding that there were 7,386 marital dissolutions in the same year, an increase from 7,216 in 2008.

The median marriage duration of divorcing couples was 10.1 years in 2009, slightly more than the 9.8 years in 2008.

The report also showed that Singaporeans preferred to marry late, particularly over the last decade, with the median age at first marriage being the highest for grooms with below secondary education, at 39.2 years, and for brides with university qualification at 28.2 years in 2009.

There were also more females than males in Singapore's resident population since 2000, but in 2010, the difference widened with females outnumbering males by 49,500. The ratio fell to 974 males per 1,000 females in 2010, down from 998 males per 1,000 females in 2000.

Singapore's total population was 5.08 million as at end-June 2010, of which 3.77 million were Singapore residents, comprising 3.23 million Singapore citizens and 0.54 million permanent residents, and 1.31 million non-resident foreigners.

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

Source : Bernama