SINGAPORE IDENTITY CARD

1. Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs under the category "Race" in the Singapore NRIC, (a) how many other different groups are there on our Registry of Citizens, besides Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian; (b) whether he will provide a list of all the groups in the order of their numerical strength in the population and their percentages; and (c) what are the considerations that guide the Government’s decision to assign a citizen to a particular racial group.

Mr Wong Kan Seng:

Besides Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian, there are currently 91 other races that Singapore Citizens are classified under.

Chinese, Malays, and Indians form the three largest groups. They constitute 78%, 14%, and 7% respectively of our population. Among the other races which make up the remaining 1%, Eurasians form the largest group, followed by Arabs. Together, they account for more than 60% of this 1%. The remaining 0.4% of Singaporeans are distributed across 80 over other races.

The Government does not assign a particular race to a person. The general rule is that a person’s race follows that of his or her father. However, a person’s race can be registered differently if he or she is of mixed parentage. For example, a child of Chinese and European descent can be registered as Chinese, European or Eurasian. In this regard, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority exercises flexibility during the NRIC registration process, which takes place for most children at the age of 15. A declaration by the parents will be accepted so long as it falls within normally accepted notions of ethnicity by lineage.