Originally published: Salt&Light, 18 November 2025
What is the Singapore Dream?
Ask any younger Singaporean and chances are their notion of success will be tied to character, contentment, community, career and contribution to society – less likely marriage and parenthood.
This was one of the key findings in a recently commissioned survey by Cultivate SG, a non-profit organisation that researches and dialogues on family issues in Singapore.
Reaching out to 2,019 Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents, the survey was conducted by Pureprofile from August 22 to September 9, 2025 via an online questionnaire.
The Marriage, Parenthood and Success Survey 2025 aimed to offer insights into the perspectives and attitudes of a nationally representative sample of Singaporeans aged 21 to 45, with a focus on that demographic as it is the mainstream age range for getting married and having children.
Sharing the findings yesterday at Cultivate’s Unfiltered: The Family on Trial Conference 2025, the non-profit observed that values and worldviews, including attitudes towards success, play a significant role in shaping people’s attitudes towards marriage and parenthood. This is in contrast to other factors such as how much money one has.
Using the term “marriage and parenthood orientation” (MPO), the survey classified respondents into three categories. This is the breakdown of the profiles.
