Cost of living and housing affordability emerged as the areas which citizens would like the government to place greater focus on
As we enter a fresh year, what do Singaporeans think about the way things currently are in the country? Latest data from YouGov indicates that majority are content, with close to six in ten saying they are happy with the way things are now (57%). A quarter express opposite sentiment (25%).
Generationally, Baby Boomers were most likely to be happy with the way things are currently (67%). Though Millennials made up the smallest proportion of citizens who expressed happiness at the nation’s current standing (50%), Gen Xers were slightly more likely to declare unhappiness (27%).
Similar trends were observed when respondents were asked specifically about the government’s performance. Close to six in ten were very or mostly satisfied (57%), while a third expressed dissatisfaction (37%). Baby Boomers were again most likely to express positive sentiment, with over two-thirds saying they are satisfied (64%).
Respondents were also polled on how they believed the government performed across a range of attributes. Law and order was the best-rated attribute, with a third saying the government performed excellently (32%) and another half saying performance was good (45%). Other areas respondents said the government did well in were public health and economic management, with more than half rating them positively.
Environment and climate change; providing equal opportunity; and immigration made up the middle ground.
On the other end of the spectrum, cost of living and housing affordability were the areas which the largest proportion of Singaporeans said were handled poorly, with around two in five saying so (39% for cost of living; 37% for housing affordability).
Though fewer went as far as to say the government’s action relating to jobs was handled poorly (15%), two in five rated it as “fair” – the second highest proportion of people after cost of living.
For the most part, areas which citizens hope the government would place greater focus on aligned with the attributes that were rated most poorly.
Nine in ten said more needs to be done to address the cost of living (66%), followed by three in five who said so for housing affordability (66%). Just over two in five want more focus placed on jobs (45%) and public health (41%), while a third say more needs to be done in economic management (33%).
Looking across generations, Gen Xers were most likely to say more had to be done to address cost of living (91%), while housing affordability was of greatest concern among Millennials (71%).
Gen X were the demographic to be most concerned about jobs (49%), while public health and economic management were most important to Baby Boomers (51% for public health; 38% for economic management).
Methodology:
YouGov interviewed 1,045 Singapore Citizens between 14th and 18th December 2022. The effective margin of error on this survey is ± 3.0. YouGov conducts its polling using active sampling techniques from our online panel. When using Active Sampling, restrictions are put in place to ensure that only the people contacted are allowed to participate. We target specific demographics to ensure that the final sample is representative of the population by age, gender, ethnicity, and electorate. This approach is used for YouGov polling globally.
