The latest Language Identity and Management in Singapore study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) offers a crucial, data-driven window into the quiet evolution of our linguistic landscape.
English and Singlish are increasingly cementing their roles as our primary linguistic identifiers, while heritage languages that sit outside our four official languages showed a fascinating rebound.
In 2024, the proportion of Singaporeans identifying most with English or Singlish rose to 47.6 per cent, up from 33.8 per cent in 2013. Concurrently, those identifying most with their official Mother Tongue or parents’ heritage language dropped from 65.1 per cent to 50.4 per cent.
It is easy to view these shifting numbers through a lens of cultural anxiety or take it as a sign that we are drifting toward becoming a more English-dominant society.
But a deeper dive into the data reveals a far more nuanced story of “negotiated coexistence”. Our Mother Tongues are not dying; rather, their roles are being dynamically redefined.
Our bilingual policy continues to hold the fort. The IPS study shows that self-reported oral proficiency in our official Mother Tongues remains high and stable.
Among Indian respondents of Tamil descent, an overwhelming 92.9 per cent maintain strong proficiency in Tamil. Over eight in 10 Chinese respondents can speak Mandarin well or very well, and over nine in 10 Malay respondents report the same for Malay.
Yet, there is a stark disconnect between our personal abilities and our collective confidence. Only 36.5 per cent of respondents felt that spoken Mother Tongue standards had improved over the past decade – a sharp contrast to the 62.4 per cent who saw a rising standard in spoken English.
The report also reveals that our linguistic landscape is far more textured beneath the surface.
In 2024, 61.4 per cent of respondents reported they could speak their heritage language at least well, up from 53.7 per cent in 2018. However, this capital is uneven across ethnic groups: Indian respondents reported the highest proficiency (77.9 per cent), followed by Chinese respondents (60.7 per cent), while Malay respondents reported the lowest levels (26.2 per cent).
What do these layers tell us? They tell us that a “Singaporean core” is not a monolith.
If English provides our shared civic platform and opens doors to global networks, our Mother Tongues provide our cultural lines of supply into Asia.
These languages have profound strategic value. As the global order fractures, maintaining our Mother Tongues as cultural anchors is exactly what will keep the Singaporean identity from being swept away by the geopolitical tides.
