Department of Social Welfare conducts first social survey

In September 1946, the newly established Department of Social Welfare put up a proposal to the government to carry out a social survey of Singapore so that reliable data and information could be obtained to help formulate social

policies.^[1] The government took up the recommendation and appointed a committee to work on the details of the survey that would dovetail with a population census that was to take place in 1947.^[2] Dubbed the “first social survey in Southeast Asia”^[3] and the “first of its kind in the Commonwealth colonial territories”,^[4] the social survey was a pioneering attempt to gain an understanding of the social structure of Singapore. Out of this initiative, the department also set up a permanent Social Survey Unit that would conduct research and collect statistics on the social conditions in Singapore.^[5]

The committee’s plan was approved by the government in June 1947.^[6] Following some initial pilot and pre-testing surveys, the actual survey was conducted on more than 5,000 households in urban Singapore^[7] over three weeks starting from 15 December 1947.^[8] It was administered by some 90 enumerators comprising staff from the Social Welfare department and volunteers from Raffles College and St. Andrew’s School. Goh Keng Swee, who was then a supervisor at the Social Survey Unit of the Social Welfare department, led as chairman of the enumerators.^[9]

The findings of the social survey were released on 11 November 1948^[10] in the form of a report titled The Social Survey of Singapore: A Preliminary Study of Some Aspects of Social Conditions in the Municipal Area of Singapore.^[11]

The survey included information such as household characteristics, the occupation and education of wage earners, the type of housing, the education of children and ties with the homeland.^[12] Despite its shortcomings and limitations, the survey  provided an overview of  Singapore’s post-war landscape,^[13] and highlighted the poor conditions of overcrowding^[14] as well as the low literacy rates among the population.^[15] The survey also tested the department’s ability to conduct a large-scale assessment of the population.^[16]

This social survey was followed by a more detailed and coherent survey conducted between 1953 and 1954, and led by Goh who had risen to become Assistant Director of the Department of Social Welfare.^[17] The results of this much lauded survey were presented in the report Urban Incomes & Housing: A Report on the Social Survey of Singapore:1953–54.^[18]

References
1. Singapore. Social Welfare Department. (1947). A social survey of Singapore: A preliminary study of some aspects of social conditions in the municipal area of Singapore (p. 1). Singapore: Dept. of Social Welfare. Call no.: RCLOS 309.15957 SIN.
2. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947, p. 2.
3. First social survey in S.E. Asia (1947, December 5). The Singapore Free Press, p. 5.  Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Report is first of its kind. (1948, November 11). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
5. Singapore. Social Welfare Department. (1947). Annual report 1946 (p. 43). Singapore: Social Welfare Department. Call no.: RCLOS 361.6 SIN-[AR].
6. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947, p. 3.
7. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947, pp. 3–5, 23, 28.
8. Social survey begins. (1947, December 16). The Singapore Free Press, p. 5. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
9. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947, pp. 20–21.
10. Three-fourths of city overcrowded. (1948, November 11). The Straits Times, p. 1. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
11. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947.
12. Singapore. Social Welfare Department, 1947, pp. I–IV.
13. Chew, E., & Kwa, C. G. (Eds.). (2012). Goh Keng Swee: A legacy of public service (p. 50). Singapore; Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific; S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies; National Archives of Singapore. Call no.: RSING 959.5705092 GOH.
14. The Straits Times, 11 Nov 1948, p. 1.
15. Chinese illiteracy. (1948, November 11). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
16. Chew & Kwa, 2012, p. 50.
17. Ooi, K. B. (2010). In lieu of ideology: The intellectual biography of Goh Keng Swee (p. 49). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Call no.: RSING 959.5705092 OOI; Goh, K. S. (1956). Urban incomes & housing: A report on the social survey of Singapore, 1953–54. Singapore: [Dept. of Social Welfare]. Call no.: RCLOS 309.15957 GOH.
18. Chew & Kwa, 2012, p. 53; Goh, 1956.