Singapura

Things you may or may not know about this place we call our second home:

Singapore consists of 63 islands, including mainland Singapore.

On average, the relative humidity is around 90% in the morning and 60% in the afternoon. During prolonged heavy rain, relative humidity often reaches 100%.

Singapore is unique as it is the only country in Asia which has English as its first language.

Singapore is the 5th wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita.

In 2009, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Singapore the tenth most expensive city in the world in which to live—the third in Asia, after Tokyo and Osaka.

The city state is also the second most crowded country in the world after Monaco.

Singapore has consistently been rated as the least corrupt country in Asia and among the world's ten most free from corruption by Transparency International.

The Economist Intelligence Unit describes Singapore as a "hybrid regime" of democratic and authoritarian elements. Freedom House ranks the country as "partly free".

In its Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2004, Reporters Without Borders ranked Singapore 147 out of 167. Most of the local media are directly or indirectly controlled by the government through shareholdings of these media entities by the state's investment arm Temasek Holdings, and are often perceived as pro-government.

Capital punishment (hanging) for first-degree murder and drug trafficking.

Singapore has one of the busiest ports in the world and is the world's fourth largest foreign exchange trading centre after London, New York City and Tokyo.

Singapore introduced a Goods and Services Tax (GST) with an initial rate of 3% on 1 April 1994. The taxable GST was increased to 4% in 2003, to 5% in 2004, and to 7% on 1 July 2007.

Singapore is fast positioning itself as a medical tourism hub — about 200,000 foreigners seek medical care in the country each year. (I'm guessing that's 200,000 * 20 Panadols given out)

Singapore has one of the highest percentage of foreigners in the world. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector in Singapore.

About 7.8 million tourists visited Singapore in 2006. The total visitor arrivals reached around 10.2 million in 2007. Singapore population is still less than 5 million.

Singapore maintains diplomatic relations with 175 countries, although it does not maintain a high commission or embassy in many of those countries. Singapore enjoys good relations with many European nations, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

In 2008, the total fertility rate was only 1.28 children per woman, the 3rd lowest in the world and well below the 2.10 needed to replace the population. To overcome this problem, the government is encouraging foreigners to immigrate to Singapore. These large numbers of immigrants have kept Singapore's population from declining.