POORLY educated men are being left out in the cold by women in wealthy Singapore as the number of unmarried people continues to rise, the latest government census has shown.

At the other end of the gender divide, more women with university degrees remained single as they placed career over marriage and family, the Department of Statistics census for 2000 released late Feb 15 said.

"Singlehood was more prevalent among citizen males with below secondary qualification and graduate citizen females," the report said.

It said 21 percent of men aged 40-44 with below secondary level education were unmarried -- nearly doubled from 12.3 percent in 1990.

The proportion was 29.2 percent for those in the 35-39 age bracket and 41 percent for those aged between 30-34.

Only nine percent of graduate men aged 40-44 were single.

"Singapore women are very pragmatic. The men they want must have money, more money and status in society," Francis Choo, a 41-year-old bachelor who quit school at 14, told the Straits Times.

In contrast, 27 percent of older graduate females were single, compared with nine percent of less educated women in the same age group.

Average family size also shrank to an average 2.5 children in 2000 from 2.8 in 1990, the survey showed, despite government pleas and incentives to encourage couples to have more children.

"The decline in family size was associated with the trend towards delay in marriage. More females were marrying later than before," it said.

The city-state's fertility rate has dropped below 1.5 children per woman, lower than the 2.15 deemed necessary for a population to replace itself -- sparking concerns among national leaders.

Among the younger age groups, the proportion of childless married women increased and families with only one children were becoming more common, the statistics office said.

Almost half of married women below 30 years old and 14 percent of those aged 30-39 had remained childless, up from 38 percent and 11 percent respectively in 1990.