Less babies born in Singapore

Less babies born in Singapore

SINGAPORE (AP): Singaporeans may be having fewer babies, but the number of educated women having children is on the rise, a health ministry official said on Friday.

In 1987, 16,012 babies, or 38 percent of all babies born were of mothers with at least secondary education, meaning they have gone to school but not necessarily to university.

In 1998, the figure almost doubled to 31,578, or 72 percent of all babies born that year, according to Department of Statistics figures published in the daily Straits Times. The department confirmed the figures.

Singapore officials have been expressing concern over the falling birth rate in this small country of 3.2 million people.

Past government campaigns to slow Singapore's population growth years ago proved too successful. The fertility rate has fallen from 1.92 in 1990 to 1.48 in 1999, according to the Department of Statistics.