This is Singapore's weakest dimension — and a genuinely mixed one. Sex between men was decriminalised in January 2023 when the colonial-era Section 377A was repealed, a real step forward. But at the same time the government amended the constitution to shield the man-and-woman definition of marriage from legal challenge, so same-sex marriage and partnership remain out of reach. There is no protection against discrimination in employment or housing, and in 2025 officials confirmed that a new anti-discrimination law is not intended to cover sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ+ themes are still restricted in broadcast media and film ratings. Singapore is not covered by the ILGA Rainbow Europe index (Europe only), so this score is grounded in the Equaldex Equality Index (Singapore 45/100).

Singapore holds regular elections, but the same party — the People's Action Party — has governed without interruption since 1959, and the EIU rates it a "flawed democracy" (6.18, 2024). Opposition exists but campaigns on an uneven field; public assembly is tightly restricted (legal protest is confined to the Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park). Press freedom is the weaker half: Reporters Without Borders ranks Singapore 123rd of 180 (2025), with mainstream media closely aligned to the state and "fake news" legislation (POFMA) used against critics and independent outlets. The flip side is a state that is efficient, stable and almost free of everyday corruption.

Singapore scores solidly here. It ranks in the upper tier of the WEF Global Gender Gap Index (0.748, 2025), with near-parity in education and health, high female workforce participation and rising representation in business and government. Gaps remain — a persistent pay gap, lower representation at the very top, and a large population of migrant domestic workers whose protections are weaker than citizens' (see the note further down). (Fair Away's women's-rights scoring is under review in 2026; see the note in Sources.) Abortion is legal on request up to 24 weeks.

Singapore ranks 16th of 143 in the WJP Rule of Law Index (2025) — its strongest dimension. It scores 2nd in the world for absence of corruption and 2nd for order and security, and contracts and property rights are reliably enforced. The important caveat is that this strength is about order and efficiency, not civil liberties: the same index flags a weakening of checks and balances and a shrinking civic space. And Singapore's criminal law is severe — it retains the death penalty, including a mandatory death penalty for trafficking above set drug thresholds, and judicial caning for some offences.

Not every country is measured on every value. Where the public data doesn't exist, we'd rather tell you than fill the gap with a guess — and Singapore is one of those cases.

The figure on our other country pages comes from the US Department of Labor's yearly review of what governments are doing about the worst forms of child labour, and that review covers the 131 countries which hold trade preferences with the United States. Singapore is not one of them, so it is never assessed. Household surveys do measure child labour in some countries outside that system, but they are run in different years with different questions, so a number taken from one of them would not mean the same thing as the tiered assessment used elsewhere on this site. We would rather show nothing than a number that isn't comparable.