(NewsNation) — Elon Musk said he believes humanity will cease to exist unless marked changes are made to the birth rate.
The Tesla CEO told Fox News in an interview Friday night that this is one thing he is concerned about in modern society.
“Well, there’s a lot of things that I suppose that I worry about. And some of these things will seem esoteric to people. The birth rate is very low in almost every country, and unless that changes, civilization will disappear,” Musk said.
U.S. births in 2024 rose marginally by 22,250 compared to the previous year, but experts quickly noted that the growth is unlikely to become a trend.
“I’d be hesitant to read much into the 2023-24 increase, and certainly not as an indication of a reversal of the trend towards lower or declining U.S. fertility,” University of Pennsylvania sociologist Hans-Peter Kohler told the Associated Press.
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In 2023, birth rates in the U.S. dropped to a record low with 55 births for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.
U.S. births and birth rates have been falling for years. They dropped most years after the 2008-09 recession, aside from a 2014 uptick. They also dropped in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, then rose for two straight years after that, an increase experts partly attributed to pregnancies put off amid the pandemic.
“Nothing seems to be turning that around. Humanity is dying. It’s just not something we evolve to react to” Musk said.
The X owner also expressed concern for the future of the U.S. and the world as a result.
“I worry generally about the strength of America. America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization,” he said. “If that column fails, it’s all over. You can’t run off to New Zealand or some other place. It’s over.”
“So either we strengthen that column and make sure America is strong, and we’ll be strong for a long time, or that roof’s coming down,” Musk said.
