Singapore Facts

1819: Sir Thomas S. Raffles purchases the island of Singapore for the British East India Company.

1942: British forces capitulate to Japanese occupation of the island nation.

1945: Britain regains control of Singapore from the defeated Japanese.

1954: After nearly six years of protracted Communist guerilla warfare, Lee Kuan Yew forms the People's Action Party, seeking an independent Singapore.

1959: Lee Kuan Yew is made the prime minister of Singapore after the country holds its first free elections ever. Lee remains as the country's Prime Minister.

1965: Singapore becomes an independent republic.

As of 1983, foreign investment accounted for 70 percent of the country's industrial production.

The United States is the largest consumer of Singapore's goods.

Singapore is an island with a total area of 238.6 sq. miles.

The capital city of Singapore is Singapore.

The official language of Singapore is Malay, however; the most commonly spoken tongues are English, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil.

The main island of Singapore has a population of approximately 2.5 million people.

The government enforces strict family planning laws, and the annual increase in the population is around .16 percent.

More than three quarters of the population is Chinese, about 15 percent Malay, six percent Indian, Ceylonese, and Pakistani, and about 2.3 percent European, Jewish, Armenian, and Arab.

The major religions of Singapore are Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Taoism.