SINGAPORE, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Two-thirds of respondents in 2024 rated Singapore's racial and religious harmony as high or very high, a notable increase from 57.1 percent in 2018, according to a survey released on Monday.
Racial minorities were more likely to rate harmony as moderate, while older respondents tended to indicate higher levels of harmony compared to younger ones, noted the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a think tank at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.
The survey also showed a significant rise in trust across racial and religious groups. The proportion of respondents expressing distrust in other racial groups decreased from 42.7 percent in 2013 to 27.2 percent in 2024.
As in earlier studies, racial and religious acceptance was highest in public relationships, such as with colleagues or neighbors, compared to personal relationships, such as with in-laws or spouses.
Discrimination in accessing public services remained rare, with about nine in 10 respondents reporting they were treated "about the same" as others across all three survey waves.
At the workplace, reports of discrimination have decreased, with 7 percent of respondents in 2024 saying they experienced discrimination in relation to a job or promotion, compared to 9.3 percent in 2018. Among those who reported discrimination, the most common forms were exclusion from conversations due to language use (57.7 percent) and perceptions of exclusion during job promotions, with 47.7 percent believing others were promoted because of their race, not qualifications.
The survey, based on a nationally representative sample of 4,000 Singaporean residents, also draws on data from 2018 and 2013 for comparison. ■
