Elon Musk raises concern over China's ‘population collapse’

Tesla founder and billionaire-entrepreneur Elon Musk has been voicing his concern over China's falling population, for quite some time now. The tech billionnaire took to Twitter sharing his concern over China losing over 40 per cent of its people every generation, if the birth rates don't pick up.

"Most people still think China has a one-child policy. China had its lowest birthrate ever last year, despite having a three-child policy! At current birth rates, China will lose ~40% of people every generation! Population collapse. (sic)," Musk tweeted in response to a BBC article.

The BBC article talked about China's population growing from 1.41212 billion to just 1.41260 billion in 2021, denoting a record low increase of just 480,000. From 2.6 in the late 1980s, China's birth rate has dropped from 2.6 in 1980s to 1.5 in 2021. 

"This has happened despite China abandoning its one-child policy in 2016 and introducing a three-child policy, backed by tax and other incentives last year," the report further mentioned. The country had discontinued its one child-policy in 2016. Reports have linked strict COVID-19 measures over the last two years to the drop in figures.

Last month Musk had shared how the fertility rate in the US has dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 and has remained so for the last 50 years. He posted a chart of birth rate levels from an article by The Wall Street Journal which showed that the total fertility rate has now reached close to 1.5 in the US.

He even addressed the common notion that the richer a person gets, the fewer children he or she produces. The richest man in the world called himself a "rare exception" in that case since he himself has eight children. "Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have. I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one kid," Musk said in another tweet.
 

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: RBI should do more rate hikes in initial months, says HSBC India boss Hitendra Dave

Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s this favourite stock falls over 15% in 2022; should you buy?