The Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state and the smallest country in Southeast Asia. It is on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of the Indonesian Riau Islands. Its coordinates are 1°17.583′N 103°51.333′E, just 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the Equator. The site of several ancient port cities and a possession of several empires in its history, Singapore was a Malay fishing village when it was colonized by the United Kingdom in the 19th century.

It was further occupied by the Japanese Empire in World War II, and was later part of the merger which formed the Federation of Malaysia. When Singapore acquired independence, it was originally sociopolitically volatile and economically undeveloped, and had few natural resources. Foreign investment and rapid government-led industrialisation has since created an economy which relies on exports of electronics and manufacturing from its port. More than 90 percent of Singapore's population lives in housing estates constructed by the Housing Development Board and nearly half use the public transport system daily. As a result of public transport and environmental initiatives by government ministries, Singapore's pollution is mostly isolated from heavy industry on Jurong Island. Politically, Singapore is a representative democratic socialist country that has adopted a welfare system, although de facto, it has a dominant-party system. The government of Singapore has attracted controversy for some policies it has taken to achieve its development.