‘No bandwidth left for the family’: why many Singaporeans want to be child-free

As Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong prepares to unveil plans to ease the strain on families during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, a new survey points to a difficult question behind the city state’s record-low fertility rate: what if a substantial share of residents no longer want children at all?Nearly one in four Singaporeans aged 18 to 44 surveyed by YouGov in July said they had no children and did not intend to have them in the future.Zahir Latif and his wife are among them.For eight years, the couple have returned to the same question: should they have children. Each time, the conversation has ended in the same place.They worry about money, time and the fear of losing themselves, Zahir, 42, said. The unstable income that comes with freelance work – he is a content creator and his wife is a writer – has also made parenthood feel incompatible with the life they have built.Taking on a stable 9-to-5 job, he added, could mean giving up any semblance of work-life balance.“Besides money, time is something Singapore struggles to give back to its citizens,” he said. “If you want to get enough sleep, your day is pretty much over in a few hours after work.”