“Young couples hesitate to start a family. They worry about the responsibilities and costs. Parents face a different set of worries. Every day is a balancing act – between work and family, between earning a living and caring for loved ones”, Wong said, adding that many parents also worry about the future their children will inherit and whether they are positioned to help them succeed in life.
A Surge in Support
In light of that outlook, Wong announced a number of measures intended to encourage people to have children and start families. Foremost among them is the expansion of financial schemes to the point that approximately S$70,000 ($55,000) worth of aid will be provided for every Singaporean child from birth to the age of 17.
While the S$70,000 figure is inclusive of pre-existing financial support, it represents a major increase in the amount available to families.
The old regime was tiered, meaning that the government provided progressively more assistance for children based on their birth order, with a third child receiving more support than a first child.
However, a first child could receive approximately S$27,500 ($21,700) if parents engaged fully with all of the schemes on offer.
The increase comes primarily via the new SG Child Support Package, which includes S$32,000 ($25,300) in cash child credits, with S$2,000 ($1,600) disbursed annually over 16 years, from age one to 16.
Another new measure is an S$10,000 ($7,900) education top-up the year a child turns 17, a payment intended to help parents cover the cost of higher education.
Together with other payments such as the S$10,000 Baby Gift, disbursed in two tranches within 12 months of a child’s birth, and ongoing medical and education grants, the new child credits bring total support to around S$70,000 for every child.
At the same time, Wong announced in his address that his government would be increasing childcare leave and prioritizing growing families in public housing lotteries by giving them additional ballot chances for every child they have or are expecting.
“Ultimately, of course, the decision to have children is a deeply personal one. Policies alone cannot make this happen. But what we can do is make it easier for Singaporeans who want children to start and raise a family”, Wong said, adding that those who choose to have children could expect support. “The Government will stand with you”.
The Singaporean focus on families comes amid falling fertility rates across much of the world, with only a small number of outliers.
Plummeting Populations
The situation is particularly stark in Southeast and East Asia, where in 2025 a number of countries and territories had TFRs below 1.0, including China (estimated at 0.93), South Korea (0.80) and Taiwan, which had the lowest TFR in the world at approximately 0.7 children per woman.
Governments in many regions are increasingly adopting generous fiscal policies in an effort to reverse the downward trend, but case studies and research suggest that cash benefits alone do little to raise fertility rates.
A 2024 review from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggested that such measures have “transitory effects” on fertility at best.
“Most international research shows that monetary transfers for families with children have no or only modestly positive effects on fertility”, it said, before acknowledging that the lack of “natural experiments” makes the analysis challenging.
