The third edition of this book has included all the materials that have been made available since the previous edition was published in 2006. The statistics from the 2005 General Household Survey have been completely replaced with the more comprehensive and reliable data made available from the latest Census of Population conducted in June 2010. Other statistics used in the book were also updated, up to the year 2010 in most cases. Apart from updating the figures in the various chapters, new developments concerning the population of Singapore have been incorporated in these chapters. An important change refers to the computation of a new set of population and labour force projections included in the last chapter.

In preparing the present edition of the book I have again benefited from the assistance I received from the various organizations mentioned in the previous prefaces. I wish to thank Ambassador Tan Chin Tiong, Director of ISEAS, for his support and encouragement and Mrs Triena Ong, Managing Editor of ISEAS Publication Init, for bringing out this edition expenditiously. I wish to emphasize again that any opinions and shortcomings in the book are entirely my own.