Editing Straits Settlements (section)

== Population ==
[[File:Image from page 817 of "Popular electricity magazine in plain English" (1912) (14578993768).jpg|thumb|right|Malacca business street, 1912]]
The following are the area and population, with details of race distribution, of the colony of the Straits Settlements, the figures being those of the census of 1901:<ref name=EB1911/>{{RP|980}}

{|class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2"| !! rowspan="2"| Area in square miles !!  rowspan="2"| Population in 1891  !! colspan="7"| Population in 1901
|-
! Total !! Europeans !! Eurasians !! Chinese !! Malays !! Indians !! Other nationalities
|-
| Singapore || 206 || 184,554 || 228,555 || 3,824 || 4,120 || 164,041 || 36,080 || 17,823 || 2,667
|-
| Penang, Province Wellesley and Dindings || 381 || 235,618 || 248,207 || 1,160 || 1,945 || 98,424 || 106,000 || 38,051 || 2,627
|-
| Malacca || 659 || 92,170 || 95,487 || 74 || 1,598  || 19,468 || 72,978 || 1,276 || 93
|-
| Total || 1,246 || 512,342 || 572,249 || 5,058 || 7,663 || 281,933 || 215,058 || 57,150 || 5,387
|}
The population, which was 306,775 in 1871 and 423,384 in 1881, had in 1901 reached a total of 572,249. As in former years, the increase was solely due to immigration, especially of Chinese, though a considerable number of Tamils and other natives of India settled in the Straits Settlements. The total number of births registered in the colony in 1900 was 14,814, and the ratio per 1,000 of the population during 1896, 1897, and 1898 respectively was 22–18, 20–82 and 21–57; while the number of registered deaths for 1896–1900 gave a ratio per 1000 of 42–21, 36–90, 30–43, 31–66 and 36-25 respectively, the number of deaths registered during 1900 being 23,385. The cause to which the excess of deaths over births is to be attributed is to be found in the fact that the Chinese and Indian population, which numbered 339,083, or over 59 per cent of the whole, was composed of 261,412 males and only 77,671 females, and a comparatively small number of the latter were married women and mothers of families. Male Europeans also outnumbered females by about two to one. Among the Malays and Eurasians, who alone had a fair proportion of both sexes, infant mortality was excessive due to early marriages and other causes.<ref name=EB1911/>{{RP|980}}

The number of immigrants landing in the various settlements during 1906 was: Singapore 176,587 Chinese; Penang 56,333 Chinese and 52,041 natives of India; and Malacca 598 Chinese. The total number of immigrants for 1906 was therefore 285,560, against 39,136 emigrants, mostly Chinese returning to China. In 1867, the date of the transfer of the colony from the East India Company to the Crown, the total population was estimated at 283,384.<ref name=EB1911/>{{RP|980}}

In 1939, the population reached 1,370,300.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chen |first1=C. Peter |title=Singapore |url=https://ww2db.com/country.php?cid=133 |website=World War II Database}}</ref>