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Singapore to expand pro-family support to cut childcare costs

Singapore cited a 0.87 record-low total fertility rate in 2025 and said it will absorb a larger share of childcare and preschool expenses.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Asia

Singapore will increase spending on pro-family measures aimed at easing childcare costs, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said at the National Day Rally, as the city state seeks to reverse a declining fertility trend.

The package includes childcare leave that scales with the number of children in a family, with the government fully covering the bill rather than sharing costs with employers, as well as top-ups to children’s post-secondary education accounts and lower full-day childcare fees in government-supported schools.

Wong said the changes would shift a much larger portion of childcare and preschool costs to the government, describing the effort as one of the best investments.

Singapore’s total fertility rate fell to a historic low of 0.87 in 2025, and the government has formed an inter-agency workgroup chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah to address the trend.

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