How Many Americans Live in Singapore
Singapore's statistics are meticulous and nationality-blind: passes, residents, and citizenship grants all publish in aggregate. The count of Americans most often cited comes from the US embassy, not from Singapore.
Singapore's published record counts 30,000 residents holding US citizenship. Singapore publishes no count of US-born residents, so that second measure is not shown here.
The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by Singapore's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in Singapore, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what Singapore publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.
Why Singapore's Records, Not Washington's
The ContextThe context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.
The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›
So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records Singapore itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where Singapore publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›
What the Research Found
The FindingsFindings from the Singapore research, drawn from the official record.
- Singapore publishes centralized aggregate migration and population statistics primarily through SingStat, ICA, MOM, and related government agencies.
- Publicly available datasets provide visibility into permanent resident populations, non-resident populations, work pass holders, citizenship grants, and permanent residency approvals, although most statistics are not nationality-disaggregated.
- The Permanent Resident population increased from 488.651 in 2021 to 543,832 in 2025, while the non-resident population increased from 1.466.724 to 1,906,660 during the same period.
- MOM publishes annual statistics covering Employment Pass Holders, S Pass Holders, Work Permit Holders, and Migrant Domestic Workers, with Work Permit Holders representing the largest pass-holder category between 2021–2025.
- Singapore granted 35.264 Permanent Residencies and 22.766 Singapore Citizenships in 2024. The majority of PRs and SCs granted between 2020–2024 were issued to individuals from Southeast Asian and other Asian countries.
- Publicly available migration and residency statistics are primarily reported in aggregate or broad regional categories rather than by specific nationality or country of origin such as the United States.
The Record Over Time
The TrendYear-by-year totals across every available indicator — gaps reflect genuine data absence, not zero.
The Figures as Data
The EvidenceMachine-readable copy of the figures on this page, each with the year its source published it. Free to download and reuse with attribution.
| Figure | Value | Vintage | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| US citizens | 30,000 | — | — |
| US visitor arrivals (2024) | 692,430 | 2024 | — |
| US visitor arrivals (2025) | 716,909 | 2025 | — |
Vintage is the year the publishing authority reported the figure. A dash means the year or publisher is not yet recorded in our dataset for that figure; the Sources and Datasets section below names every publisher behind this page. The free CSV covers the years shown to readers without an account.
How Far to Trust These Figures
The Publishing RecordWhat Singapore publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.
- Inflows
- Permits
- US-Born
- Citizens
- Naturalizations
The gaps: Published only partially or as one-off estimates: resident US citizens. Not published: US-born residents, annual arrivals, naturalizations, residence or work permits. Those gaps set the grade; they do not make the published figures wrong. What the partial figures can support: Citizens comes as a one-off figure rather than a yearly series: good for a snapshot of today, not for reading a trend.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick AnswersEvery answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.
How many Americans live in Singapore?
Does Singapore recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
Where do the figures for Americans in Singapore come from?
News stories our newsroom has published about this country.
The full series, every year, every country
The public view shows a limited year window for each series. Researchers and journalists can request access to the complete annual record for every country in the project.