Singapore's total population rises to 5.31 million

Singapore's population stood at 5.31 million at the end of June this year, up 2.5 percent from a year ago, the Department of Statistics said on Friday. The number of citizens rose by 0.9 percent from 3.26 million to 3.29 million, while the number of those with permanent residency rose marginally from 532,000 to 533,100, up 0.2 percent year on year. The number of non-resident population rose by 7.2 percent, slightly higher than last year's growth of 6.9 percent. But it was significantly lower than the increases of 14.9 percent in 2007 and 19 percent in 2008, respectively. An estimated 3.14 million Singapore residents were staying in public housing flats built and sold by the Housing and Development Board, accounting for 82 percent of Singapore residents. The median age of the resident population went up further to 38. 4 years in 2012, compared to 38 in 2011 and 37.4 in 2010. The proportion of Singapore residents aged 65 years and above rose to 9.9 percent from 9.3 percent last year. Female residents outnumbered males. The sex ratio was 970 males per 1,000 females, down from 972 in 2011.