Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe.
fish, deepwater ports
arable land: 0.89%
permanent crops: 0.14%
other: 98.97% (2011)
5,567,301
(July 2014 est.) country comparison to the world: 116
Chinese 74.2%, Malay 13.3%,
Indian 9.2%, other 3.3% (2013 est.)
Buddhist 33.9%, Muslim 14.3%,
Taoist 11.3%, Catholic 7.1%,
Hindu 5.2%, other Christian 11%,
other 0.7%, none 16.4% (2010 est.)
Mandarin (official) 36.3%, English (official) 29.8%,
Malay (official) 11.9%, Hokkien 8.1%,
Tamil (official) 4.4%, Cantonese 4.1%,
Teochew 3.2%, other Indian languages 1.2%,
other Chinese dialects 1.1%, other 1.1% (2010 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 95.9%
male: 98%
female: 93.8% (2010 est.)
Singapore
parliamentary republic
9 August 1965 (from Malaysian Federation)
National Day, 9 August (1965)
