SINGAPORE, Sept 4 — Singaporeans appear to be getting better at cleaning up after themselves. Yet they are also becoming harder to please.

Satisfaction with the cleanliness of public spaces fell to 91 per cent in 2025, from 94 per cent two years earlier, even as more people said keeping the country clean was a matter of personal responsibility, according to a survey reported by Singapore-based media organisation CNA.

The biggest grumbles were closer to home.

Neighbourhood spaces recorded the sharpest fall among the six areas surveyed, with satisfaction dropping from 93.3 per cent to 87.4 per cent — its lowest level since 2018. Void decks, corridors and lift lobbies fared particularly poorly, tumbling 8.8 percentage points to 80.9 per cent.

Public toilets emerged as another sore point. Satisfaction fell 8.2 percentage points to 75.5 per cent, with coffee shop toilets ranking lowest at just 48.3 per cent after a 12-point plunge. Hawker centre toilets fell 10 points to 60 per cent.

The findings come from the seventh Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey, conducted by Singapore Management University and involving 2,007 Singapore citizens and permanent residents.

Researchers suggested the decline may not simply mean Singapore has become dirtier. Years of relatively high standards may instead have made people more demanding, while increased waste from deliveries and cleaning costs could also have played a part.

Even the weather could be colouring perceptions.

“When it’s hot, there’s this perception that there’s this level of grime ... everybody is so grumpy, so that also affects how we perceive cleanliness of the spaces shared,” Professor Paulin Tay Straughan, one of the study’s leaders, said.

Food outlets remained the lowest-rated of the six main categories, with hawker centres and coffee shops among the weakest performers.

Yet while Singaporeans may be growing fussier about their surroundings, the survey suggests they are also increasingly willing to accept responsibility for them.

Some 98.6 per cent agreed that keeping Singapore clean was everyone’s responsibility. Among those who disposed of rubbish properly, 71.3 per cent cited personal responsibility, up from 65.2 per cent in 2023, while fewer pointed to fines or embarrassment.

Tray-return habits were similarly entrenched: 95.5 per cent said they always returned their trays and crockery.

Researchers said this suggested behaviours once reinforced through campaigns and penalties were increasingly becoming social norms rather than actions driven by fear of enforcement.

But enthusiasm for cleanliness appears to have its limits when money or volunteering is involved.

Fewer than half of respondents, 49.6 per cent, said they would volunteer with a neighbourhood cleanliness group, down from 63.5 per cent. Only 32 per cent were willing to pay higher service and conservancy charges for more cleaning, down from 45.5 per cent in 2023.

Straughan said residents could instead be encouraged to see neighbourhood hawker centres and coffee shops as “community kitchens” they have a stake in maintaining.

“Because we also don’t want to pay more. That’s very clear. So if you don’t want to pay more, then you have to take action. You have to demonstrate agency and collectively in a nice way, in a positive way.”