Elon Musk has issued a stark warning about the declining birth rate in the United States, following a recent report by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics which revealed that the number of births in 2023 fell to the lowest level in over 40 years.
Why It Matters
Global birth rates are plummeting as political and economic uncertainty, as well as rising living costs, discourage families from having children. In the United States, the fertility rate has remained below theĀ replacement rate of 2.1 births per womanĀ for years, raising concerns about long-term demographic sustainability.
The Trump administration is reported to be looking at ways to incentivize women to have more children in the United States.
What To Know
“Low birth rates will end civilization,” Musk, the world’s richest man, and reportedly the father of at least 14 children with at least four women,Ā said on XĀ (formerlyĀ Twitter), on Tuesday.
He was responding to an X user who had sharedĀ dataĀ released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The figures showed that in 2023, the total number of births in the United States decreased to 3.596 million, a 2 percent decline from 2022 (3.667 million). It marked the the lowest one-year tally since 1979.
The general fertility rate for the United States in the same year was 54.5 births per 1,000 women, a decline of 3 percent from 2022. The general fertility rate has generally declined since 2008, by an average 1 percent per year, the report said.
Musk, 53, the CEO ofĀ TeslaĀ andĀ SpaceX, has long voiced his concerns about the declining global birth rate, which he views as a grave threat to civilization. He has spent millions on boosting fertility and population research.
According to conservative influencer and journalist Ashley St. Clair, who shares a child with him, Musk said he wanted to hire surrogates to bear enough of his children to help avert what he described as an “apocalypse.”
“To reach legion-level before the apocalypse, we will need to use surrogates,” Musk said to St. Clair in a text message while she was carrying his child, theĀ Wall Street JournalĀ reported.
What People Are Saying
Elon Musk said on X on Tuesday:Ā “Low birth rates will end civilization.”
Weighing in on the global birth rate decline,Ā Eric Finnigan, vice president of Demographics Research at John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC),Ā saidĀ on X: “Three key changes are driving US birth rates lower rates: 1) Fewer women becoming mothers2) Delayed motherhood (average first-time mother age is now 30) 3) Smaller family sizes overall.
“This shift is part of a larger trend. US adults are hitting typical life milestones later in life. Today’s 30-year-olds:Ā· 70% live independently (vs 83% in 1984). Ā· 48% have been married (vs 78% in 1984). Ā· 33% live in a home they own (vs 47% in 1984).”
What Happens Next
The White House is reported to be exploring how to encourage American families to get married have more children. According to theĀ New York Times, potential proposals under consideration include offering government scholarships to applicants who are married or have children, as well as a $5,000 cash “baby bonus” for every American mother following childbirth.
