Understanding Singapore: Growth, Logistics and Demographics

Singapore, or the Republic of Singapore, is an island nation located just off the southern coast of Malaysia. This southeastern city-state is separated from its northern neighbor by the Johore Strait. Singapore is separated from Indonesia on the south side by the Singapore Strait (Ho, Winstedt, Leinbach, & Kenndard, 2016). The advanced logistics infrastructure of Singapore supports continued business growth and attraction to the developing country (“Comparing Logistics Infrastructure of Countries in ASEAN,” 2007). As of July 2016, the current population of Singapore is estimated to be 5,781,728. This number continues to grow at a rate of 1.86%. Over fifty percent of the population falls into the 25 – 54 years age structure. The next largest

These include Mandarin (36.3%), English (29.8%), Malay (11.9%) and Tamil (3.2%). Other languages include Hokkien (8.1%), Cantonese (4.1%), Teochew (3.2%), other Indian languages (1.2%), other dialects of Chinese (1.1%), and other (1.1) (“East & Southeast Asia: SINGAPORE,” 2016). Chinese is the predominant ethnic group with seventy-four percent of the population. Malay is the second most dominant group at thirteen percent. Nine percent of the population identifies their ethnicity as Indian, while the remaining three percent classify their ethnicity as “other” (“Country Profile - Singapore,”

The English and the Dutch administered regular expeditions to the East Indies throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1819 Britain established the British East India Trading Post in Singapore. Trade activity in Singapore was an economic success. Public and commercial infrastructure projects began to develop with the booming economy. Singapore did not participate in World War I; however, they did feel the weight of the economic downturns and booms throughout the course of the war. Singapore faced the Japanese in World War II during the Japanese Malay Campaign. The country was taken over by the Japanese until 1945. The British colonies were left in poor economic and social standings. In 1953 Singapore petitioned to become a self-governing entity. The People’s Action Party was formed shortly after. On August 9, 1964, Singapore became a sovereign state (LePoer & Vreeland,