Overview
URA's Orchard planning area is tiny, at 0.96 square kilometres, and it is drawn tightly around the retail corridor of Orchard Road between Orchard Boulevard and the Somerset end. Hotels, malls and offices line the road, and the resident count is small. SingStat recorded 1,550 residents in June 2026.
For anyone weighing a home here, the useful questions are practical ones: where the nearest schools, hawker centres and parks are, and how the area connects to the rest of the island. Several of those answers lie just outside the boundary, in River Valley, Tanglin, Newton and Museum.
Who lives here
With 1,550 residents, the percentages move with small changes, but the June 2026 picture was a balanced one: 11.6% of residents were under 15 and 17.4% were 65 or over, both a little below the national shares of 13.3% and 19.5%. In absolute terms that is about 180 children and 270 older residents.
Homes
Condominiums and other apartments housed 1,450 people, or 94% of the total. The remaining 100 lived in other types of dwelling. SingStat records no residents in HDB flats or landed homes inside the boundary.
Residents by type of dwelling, June 2026 (SingStat). Shares are our arithmetic; “–” means nil or negligible.
| Type of dwelling | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| HDB 1- and 2-room flats | – | – |
| HDB 3-room flats | – | – |
| HDB 4-room flats | – | – |
| HDB 5-room and executive flats | – | – |
| Condominiums and other apartments | 1,450 | 93.5% |
| Landed properties | – | – |
| Others | 100 | 6.5% |
| All residents | 1,550 | 100% |
Getting around
Three stations have exits in the planning area.
| Station | Code | Line |
|---|---|---|
| Orchard | NS22TE14 | North-South Line, Thomson-East Coast Line |
| Somerset | NS23 | North-South Line |
| Orchard Boulevard | TE13 | Thomson-East Coast Line |
Two lines meet at Orchard station, the North-South and the Thomson-East Coast, and LTA's exit records list 13 exits for it, two of which open across the boundary in River Valley. Somerset is the next North-South Line stop towards the city. Orchard Boulevard, on the Thomson-East Coast Line, serves the western end, with one exit inside Orchard and one in River Valley. From these stations, Marina Bay and Woodlands are each a direct ride.
Schools and childcare
MOE lists no school inside the Orchard planning area. Families living here look at schools in neighbouring areas, and the distance bands on OneMap decide Primary 1 priority; our P1 registration guide explains how. ECDA's June 2024 list places four pre-schools inside the boundary, and there is no kindergarten on its 2026 list.
Food
NEA's register has no hawker centre in Orchard. Hawker centres close by include Newton Food Centre in Newton and Zion Riverside Food Centre on Zion Road in Tanglin. Malls along the road have food courts, but these are private operations and are not part of NEA's list.
Parks and open space
NParks has two points inside the area, the Penang Road open space and Orchard Fountain Corner. The larger green spaces are next door: Fort Canning Park in the Museum planning area and the Singapore Botanic Gardens in Tanglin.
Healthcare
There is no polyclinic in Orchard, but MOH's June 2024 CHAS list places 21 clinics inside the boundary, a high number for so few residents. Public hospitals near the area include KK Women's and Children's Hospital in Kallang and Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Novena.
Community facilities
NLB runs library@orchard, which is inside the boundary. The People's Association list (June 2024) has no community club in the planning area; Cairnhill CC is in neighbouring Newton.
How Orchard compares
The Orchard planning area has about 1,600 residents per square kilometre (our arithmetic), a fraction of the density in the housing estates. Of Singapore's 55 planning areas, it ranks 38th by population, behind Mandai and Changi and ahead of Museum. What it lacks in residents it makes up in rail: two of its three stations are on the North-South Line and two on the Thomson-East Coast Line, with Orchard station counted on both.
New launches in Orchard
Our new launches index lists nothing inside Orchard.
Nearby planning areas
Next to Orchard on URA's map: Tanglin, Museum, Newton, River Valley.
Every planning area has a page on our neighbourhoods index.
Sources
- URA, Master Plan 2025 Planning Area Boundary (No Sea), data.gov.sg (updated 27 February 2026)
- LTA, MRT Station Exit (GEOJSON), data.gov.sg (updated 18 October 2026)
- LTA, Train Station Chinese Names (station codes and lines), data.gov.sg; LTA rail system map
- NParks, Parks, data.gov.sg (updated 14 November 2026)
- MOH, CHAS Clinics, data.gov.sg (list dated June 2024)
- NLB, Libraries, data.gov.sg (list dated June 2024)
- SingStat, Resident Population by Planning Area/Subzone, Age Group and Type of Dwelling, June 2026 (released 25 September 2026), singstat.gov.sg
- SLA, OneMap search (venue addresses and locations)
- ECDA, Pre-Schools Location (list dated June 2024) and Kindergartens (updated April 2026), data.gov.sg
Facts checked on 15 November 2026. See our editorial policy.
Last updated