Elon Musk has expressed his agreement on X that the world’s largest issue right now is population reduction.
Elon Musk recently expressed his worries about the world’s population reduction, describing it as one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. Musk emphasised a graph that was first shared by the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account on X (previously Twitter). The graph highlighted the impending demographic upheavals by showing anticipated population changes for important countries, such as Nigeria, the US, Indonesia, and Pakistan, between 2018 and 2100.
Experts have long acknowledged that the world’s population is declining, yet there is continuous discussion on how quickly this trend will occur and which nations would be most affected. Emigration, ageing populations, and falling fertility rates are major causes of population reduction. The average number of children per woman is less than 2.1 in many countries, which is below the threshold needed to maintain a stable population.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the average number of children per woman in England and Wales fell to 1.44 in 2023, the lowest level ever noted. According to the Daily Express, fertility rates have drastically decreased globally, from an average of 5.3 children per woman in 1963 to less than half of that amount now.
India and China both had populations of about 1.5 billion in 2018, but their paths are predicted to diverge significantly; by 2100, India’s population is expected to drop to just under 1.1 billion, a decrease of roughly 400 million, while China’s population is expected to drop dramatically to 731.9 million, a staggering drop of 731 million. By the end of the century, Nigeria, with a projected population of 790.1 million, would be the second most populous country in the world. This is according to a graph first published in 2020.
According to a 2020 study by University of Washington academics, population loss may happen faster than previously thought, especially in China and India.
The United States is predicted to be the fourth-largest country in the world by 2100, with positive net migration supporting population stability even as fertility rates are below replacement levels. In a similar vein, migration is anticipated to sustain semi-stable populations in Canada and Australia.
Current growth countries like Indonesia and Pakistan are forecast to see modest population reductions by 2100, while Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are predicted to overtake them at the turn of the century.
Global population decline has been a recurrent source of concern for Elon Musk, who has warned that “population collapse is coming.”
