Eurasian Singaporeans

Eurasians in Singapore

Total population
18,060 (2020)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Singapore
Languages
Mainly English, Portuguese, Dutch, French Also: Kristang, Chinese, Malay, etc.
Religion
Mainly Christianity Also: Sunni Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and no religion
Related ethnic groups
British people, Portuguese people, Kristang people, Macanese people, Dutch people, Indian diaspora

Eurasian Singaporeans are Singaporeans of mixed European and Asian descent. Their Asian ancestry trace from colonial India to other colonies while their European ancestry trace back to western Europe primarily, although Eurasian settlers to Singapore in the 19th century came largely from other European colonies. These included British Malaya and British Sarawak, part of the former British Raj India, of the former Portuguese India and Chittagong (today in Bangladesh), the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. When the European maritime powers colonised Asian countries, such as colonial India, Ceylon, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia and Indochina, from the 16th to 20th century, they brought into being a new group of commingled ethnicities known historically as Eurasians.^[2]

Early Europeans were primarily male and often had children with local women. Initially, the offspring of such a union were brought up as an appendage of European culture, enjoying further advantages not generally accorded to the rest of the local Asian people.^[3]