As 1918 drew to a close, old and once-powerful empires in Europe and Asia Minor were drawing their last breath. Unbeknownst to victors such as the British, their empires too would not survive the Great War for long. New states were replacing them, and over the recently begun century more would emerge in all parts of the world. In East Asia, most significantly, China was still mired in the confusion caused by the fresh collapse of its millennia-old dynastic system. Japan, on the other hand, was moving from victory to victory, modernizing impressively and filling the power vacuum left by Europe's misfortunes.

On 6 October of that eventful and chaotic year, Goh Keng Swee was born to Goh Leng Inn and Tan Swee Eng in the historic town of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula.

Leng Inn was “an upright, frugal and hardworking” Methodist who in his bachelor days worked as a teacher at Singapore's Anglo-Chinese School. Swee Eng was a Peranakan like Leng Inn, and belonged to the affluent Tan family of Malacca. The couple were to have five children — two boys and three girls.

Goh Keng Swee was only two years old when his family moved to Singapore, where he attended the Anglo-Chinese Primary School in 1927–1932, and the Anglo-Chinese Secondary School in 1933–1936.* He showed a talent for music, playing the piano and learning the accordion on his own.

Since the Goh family lived far from town on the Pasir Panjang Rubber Estate, the children relied on a chartered bus for transport to school. This they shared with the children of Leng Inn's closest friend, Kwa Siew Tee, who lived down the road from them. Siew Tee's daughter, Geok Choo, would later become Mrs Lee Kuan Yew.