Singapore Map

An island at the tip of the peninsula

Singapore lies just north of the equator at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, separated from the Malaysian state of Johor by the narrow Strait of Johor and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait. The country is one main island plus more than 60 smaller ones, the largest being Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin. Two road crossings link it to Malaysia: the Causeway between Woodlands and Johor Bahru, opened in 1924, which also carries the pipelines that bring water from Johor, and the Second Link at Tuas, opened in 1998. A third link, the 4-kilometer RTS Link light-rail line from Woodlands North to Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru, is scheduled to open around the end of 2026.

Low hills and reclaimed shores

The highest point, Bukit Timah Hill, is just 164 meters, and its nature reserve protects one of the last patches of primary rainforest on the island. The Central Catchment Nature Reserve around the MacRitchie, Upper Peirce and Upper Seletar reservoirs, and the mangroves of Sungei Buloh in the northwest, hold most of what remains of the original landscape. The coastline, by contrast, is largely man-made. Land reclamation has pushed the shore outward at Marina Bay, Changi and Tuas, and seven southern islands were joined to form Jurong Island for the petrochemical industry. Official land area has grown from about 580 square kilometers in the 1960s to about 745 square kilometers by mid-2026, an increase of more than a quarter, and reclamation continues for the new Tuas mega-port. With few natural water sources, Singapore collects rain in 17 reservoirs, including Marina Reservoir behind the Marina Barrage, and adds recycled NEWater and desalinated water to supplies imported from Johor.

Climate: hot, wet and no real off-season

The weather barely changes through the year: daytime highs around 31-32°C, high humidity and frequent afternoon thunderstorms. The wettest spell is usually November to January, during the northeast monsoon, while the southwest monsoon from June to September brings early-morning squall lines known locally as "Sumatras". February to April is generally the driest and sunniest time to visit. Between about June and October, smoke from land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan occasionally causes haze. Singapore is too close to the equator to be hit by typhoons.

Planning areas and neighbourhoods

Singapore has no provinces. For planning, the Urban Redevelopment Authority divides it into five regions (Central, East, North, North-East and West) and 55 planning areas. Most residents live in public HDB flats in new towns such as Tampines, Woodlands, Jurong West and Punggol, each built around an MRT station, a mall and a hawker centre.

• Downtown Core and Marina Bay - the financial district around Raffles Place and, on land reclaimed since the 1970s, Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay.
• Singapore River, Chinatown and Kampong Glam - the core of the colonial town laid out after Stamford Raffles founded a British trading post in 1819, with shophouses, temples and the Sultan Mosque.
• Little India - the Tamil-influenced quarter along Serangoon Road, at its busiest during Deepavali.
• Jurong - the industrial west, with Jurong Island, the Tuas port and a planned second business district around Jurong Lake.
• Changi - the far east of the island, home to Changi Airport, named the world's best airport in the 2026 Skytrax awards; its Jewel complex houses the 40-meter Rain Vortex, the world's tallest indoor waterfall.
• Sentosa and the Southern Islands - the resort island off the south coast, with Universal Studios and beaches, and quieter islands such as Kusu and St John's.

A city-state since 1965

Raffles' settlement became part of the British Straits Settlements and later a naval base, which fell to Japan in February 1942. Singapore gained self-government in 1959, joined Malaysia in September 1963 and was separated from the federation on 9 August 1965, becoming an independent republic under Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Lawrence Wong became the fourth prime minister in May 2024 and led the People's Action Party to victory in the May 2025 general election. The four official languages are English, Malay (the national language), Mandarin and Tamil, and about three-quarters of residents are ethnically Chinese, with Malay and Indian minorities. Singapore was a founding member of ASEAN in 1967. Its port is the world's second-busiest by container volume after Shanghai, and GDP per person is about US$98,800 (World Bank, 2025), among the highest in the world. Its only World Heritage site is the Singapore Botanic Gardens, inscribed in 2015. In 2008 the International Court of Justice awarded Pedra Branca, a granite outcrop at the eastern entrance to the Singapore Strait, to Singapore and the nearby Middle Rocks to Malaysia.