Think tank Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) did a survey on race, religion and language, interviewing 4,131 Singaporean residents. The household survey was conducted between Dec 2012 - April 2013.

Dr Matthew Mathews, a senior research fellow from the IPS, presented the survey at Singapore Perspectives 2014, IPS' annual conference and flagship event that analyses recent developments in Singapore and offers insights into the key trends in Singapore.

Below is a snapshot of the survey insights:

1. Overall sense of identity: Singaporean residents felt that Singapore (79.1%) is the most important determinant in deciding one's sense of identity, followed by language (72.6%) and race (70.7%).

2. More prejudice on nationality: Singaporeans think that there is much more prejudice on nationality (32.1%), relative to prejudices that are language-related (18.7%) or age-related (17.4%), when compared to five years ago.

3. Race and religion important to Malays' sense of identity: Malays residents felt that religion (70.1%) and race (51.9%) are important to their sense of identity. On the other hand, fewer Chinese residents felt that religion (15.6%) and race (22.8%) are important to their sense of identity. The same goes for Indian residents on religion (36.9%) and race (28.4%).

4. Racial and religious tension: Most Singaporeans felt that Singapore is free from racial and religious tension. 59.8% of the respondents strongly agree or agree that Singapore is free from racial tension, while 61.1% of the respondents strongly agree or agree that Singapore is free from religious tension.

5. Chinese more supportive of Singlish: While 40.9% of Malay respondents  and 40.6% of Indian respondents agree that "the government shold do more to curb the use of Singlish in Singapore", only 29.3% of the Chinese respondents agree that Singlish should be curbed.

The full insights of the survey can be found here. 

Find Mothership.SG on Facebook and Twitter.