According to Elon Musk, Australian population is about to collapse due to the low birthrates.
He shared a screen grab of an article about Australia’s Bureau of Statistics, which reported that there were almost 300,000 births in the country last year.
Musk stated that the population is going to collapse, and that the total fertility rate in Australia has gradually dropped to 1.5.
From 1993 to 2018, the birth rate for women aged 15 to 19, as well as those aged 20 to 24 has decreased by more than two-thirds.
Birth rates continue to plummet. Population collapse is coming. https://t.co/BJPSZTHgCg
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2024
According to Liz Allen, a demographer from the Australian National University, the country’s low birth rate has reached rock bottom.
She noted that countries in the region, such as South Korea, would not experience a baby boom once they hit such low fertility rates.
Allen also stated that the country would not be able to sustain a baby boom following the Second World War due to the lack of certain factors.
Urban economist Terry Rawnsley noted that the low birth rate of 1.5 is a “dramatic” number.
He said that countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Italy, which have also started to fall below that number, are at risk of experiencing a demographic “time bomb.”
According to Rawnsley, the lack of workers and economic opportunities has led to people leaving the country.
This is also causing the birth rates to decline in major economies such as the UK and the US.
According to the ONS, the total fertility rate dropped to 1.49 kids per woman in 2022. This is the lowest level since 2010.
Experts believe that countries in developed regions need a birth rate of around 2.1 to maintain a population.
Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX and Tesla, has warned that the world could end up with mass extinction due to the continued population decline.