Singapore is a city-state island country off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator and has a population of 5 million. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre and a cosmopolitan world city, playing a key role in international trade and finance. The port of Singapore is one of the five busiest ports in the world.

The earliest known settlement on Singapore was in the 2nd century AD. Singapore has a long history of immigration with forty-three percent of the population foreign-born. Singapore has a diverse population made up mainly of Asians (mostly Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Asians of various other descents) and some Caucasians. The Singapore government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil, with English the main language of the country.

The Economist Intelligence Unit in its "Quality-of-Life Index" ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and eleventh overall in the world. Singapore possesses the world's tenth largest foreign reserves.