"If the couple does not want to have children, whatever you give them, they are not going to have children," she said. "It's got to be a combination of other factors. For example, more flexible working hours, more compassionate bosses and more child-care facilities."

Singapore's baby crisis is not unique. Japan, Italy and Russia all face depopulation. Last year the United Nations revised downward world population projections for the year 2050 by more than 400 million people — from 9.3 billion to 8.9 billion. Half of the decrease was attributed to falling fertility rates, the other half to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

"Look at Japan and their difficulties," Lee said. "Japan has tremendous technology, tremendous economic potential. But they have now persuaded themselves that they are growing old and that the population is shrinking and this is an insolvable problem. And it has quite fundamentally changed the outlook of the population."

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