singaporean youth marriage values

Singapore has shown a less than positive outlook in marriage for the past few years. In year 2000, men marry at an average age of 28.7 while women marry at an average age of 26.2. In the year 2006, men marry at an average age of 29.7 while it became 27 for the female. They now marry at a later age due to a lot of factors.

Singaporean youth have a very cautious view about marriage. Marriage is a thing that they don’t take lightly. Getting married is a major decision because even if getting married is quite cheap, a married life is not. This is why the youth have a mindset that it is not wise to get married if you are not financially stable.

Several other factors also contribute to this problem One is social barrier, in a economy that is highly developing like that of Singapore, a lot of career options are available and it gets hard for people to find suitable partners based on their educational attainments.

Another is the lifestyle choice, in a booming economy, more options are available for individuals and so some people would prefer to remain single, get married at a later age and perhaps have lesser children.

Financial matters are also vital in marriage decisions. As mentioned above, getting married is not costly but those who want to live or give their future family a higher standard of living would have to focus more on their career at an earlier age. Therefore, most of them would want to first have a stable financial source before getting married. Some may also choose to have fewer children since it is really expensive in bringing up a child and giving them a comfortable living.

This has become a problem for Singapore because of the effect to the workforce and the population as a whole. Due to this the government has made certain initiatives like the Social Development Unit (SDU) and also campaigns such as “Romancing Singapore”. This is to aid college graduates in finding partners and uplift the low marriage rate of the country.