Featured Image Source: Created by Eashan Misra in collaboration with @EliBurton_

SpaceX founder & Tesla CEO Elon Musk is worried about the world’s declining birth rate leading to a potential population collapse in the future. On Tuesday, January 18, Musk shared a set of articles that state women are not giving birth to enough children to replace the world’s aging population. The birth rate is now well below the death rate in most countries. As a result, scientists predict that the number of people on Earth will peak at 9.7 billion by the year 2064, at this rate population would fall to 8.8 billion by the end of the century. According to BBC data, the number of children under 5 years old will fall from 681 million in 2017 to 401 million by the year 2100 and the number of people over the age of 80 will soar from 141 million in 2017 to 866 million by 2100 (article linked below). As life expectancy increases the birth rate of new generations severely decreases, which could make it impossible to maintain a healthy population growth. In 2020, the Coronavirus outbreak accelerated this trend. Musk has warned on multiple occasions that humanity should try to reverse the downward birth rate trend to avoid underpopulation. 

 Featured Image Source: Created by Eashan Misra