As we celebrate our 53rd birthday – let’s look at our statistical accolades

… Gini coefficient increased from 0.46 to 0.48 between 1981 and 2014

… Ministers’ earnings in his tenure as a politician – $70 million?

… $130 million in ComCare to 83,000 beneficiaries – average assistance $131 monthly per beneficiary?

… Cleaners’ basic monthly salary $1,100, including employee’s CPF

… most expensive city in the world for the 5th consecutive year (The Economist)

… 886,300 (39% of total resident labour force) with take-home pay typically less than $2,000 (gross monthly income less than $2,500 including employee CPF contribution) or were unemployed in June 2017

… junior Minister’s starting salary $1.1 million, permanent secretary’s starting salary $1.7 million

… Press Freedom Ranking 151st

… Britain’s social expenditure (20% of its GDP in 2016); Finland (31%); France (32%); South Korea (10%) – Singapore is the lowest among the countries cited

… total no. of hospital beds dropped from 11,936 in 2001 to 11,394 in 2011 – no. of hospital admissions increased from 384,054 to 469,445 – medical tourists increased to 850,000 a year – population increased by 1.1 million

Happy birthday Singapore!

Leong Sze Hian