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Singapore
Statistical Publications
For Singapore before 1965, see the discussion of statistical publications in Malaysia, particularly in the Straits Settlements.
The British colonial government of the Straits Settlements established a statistical reporting system to collect and accumulate administrative statistical data. The statistics responsibilities of the government increased with the organisation of Singapore's first population census in 1871, which it repeated at ten-year intervals.
The 1921 Statistics Ordinance established a Statistical Bureau in Siingapore for the collection, preparation and publication of official statsitics. It was headed by the Registrar of Malayan Statistics. In the 1950s the bureau was renamed Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS) and the Registrar became its Chief Statistician. DOS collated administrative data and focused mostly on external trade, shipping, cargo and basic demographic data.
Following the separation of Singapore and the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, the government of Singapore continued DOS. DOS continued to mainly collect and compile adminuistrative data from what became the Research and Statistics Units in various government ministries and statutory boards. It also took responsibility for new initiatives such as household surveys. DOS became better known as SingStat.
DOS published its first annual yearbook of statistics in 1967. The last publsihed annual statistical repoty is for 2019, when SingStat started the dssemination of statitical information via the SingStat website.
Last update on Thursday 16 April 2026 (07:35) by Pierre van der Eng