Singapore now a 'super-aged' society, with more than 1 in 5 citizens aged 65 and above - CNA

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The number of Singaporeans aged 80 and above has also grown by 60 per cent over the past 10 years. 

The number of Singaporeans aged 80 and above has also grown by 60 per cent over the past 10 years. 

Elderly men seen outside Raffles Place MRT station on Jan 14, 2022. (File photo: CNA/Calvin Oh)

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Rachel Lim 25 Sep 2026 05:34PM (Updated: 25 Sep 2026 06:45PM) Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST SINGAPORE: Singapore has reached "super-aged society" status, according to official figures released on Friday (Sep 25).

The threshold is reached when at least 21 per cent of the population is aged 65 and above.

In June 2026,  21.4 per cent of Singapore citizens were in this age group, according to this year’s Population in Brief report by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) of the Prime Minister’s Office and its partner agencies.

While the United Nations uses total population for its definition of a super-aged society, Singapore uses its citizen population.

CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less The latest figures also showed Singapore’s total population grew to 6.21 million that month, marking a 1.6 per cent increase from June last year.

But citizen marriages and births declined in 2025 compared with 2024, the report said. Marriages fell 5.6 per cent in 2025, while births dropped 10.8 per cent.

Singapore’s population has been ageing, with the proportion of citizens aged 65 and above rising faster than in the previous decade. 

In 2016, 13.7 per cent of the citizen population belonged to this age group. This rose to 21.4 per cent in 2026.

Over the past 10 years, the number of citizens aged 80 and above also increased by 60 per cent, climbing from 95,000 in 2016 to 152,000 in 2026, said the report.

It estimated that more than 1 in 4 Singaporeans would be aged 65 and above by 2035.

However, the proportion of citizens aged 20 to 64 is expected to remain broadly stable between 2030 and 2035.

"This is due to smaller cohorts ageing into the 65 and above age band, balanced by an inflow of younger cohorts into the 20 to 64 age band, including from managed immigration inflows," the report said.

The median age for Singaporeans as of June was 44.1, up from 43.7 in June 2025.There were also 2.8 citizens aged 20 to 64 for every citizen aged 65 and above in 2026, down from 4.7 in 2016. This old-age support ratio is projected to fall further to 2.2 by 2035.

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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/super-aged-society-births-population-growth-marriages-6410521
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