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Singapore's birth rate has fallen to its lowest level since the country's independence, a reading that places the metric at a historical floor with no modern parallel.
By definition, every prior data point in Singapore's post-independence era sat above the current level. The record is structural, not cyclical.
What the superlative signals A rate at its lowest since independence does not describe a bad year inside a stable trend.
It describes a trend that has run in one direction long enough to erase all prior historical comparisons.
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