Elon Musk on population collapse: At current birth rates, China will lose…

Elon Musk has yet again raised an alarm on Twitter over a possible "population collapse", which, according to him, the world may see in near future.

The 50-year-old tech billionaire has been voicing his opinion on the matter for quite some time now. This time, he took China's example to bolster his argument. "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 article says that the Asian country's population grew from 1.41212 billion to just 1.41260 billion in 2021 – 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, the report further highlighted. Strict Covid measures have over the last two years have been linked to the drop in figures. The country had discontinued its one child-policy in 2016.

Musk's comment come a day after he had said: "We definitely don't have too many people. Earth could sustain many times its current human population and the ecosystem would be fine."

Last month, he had - during an interview - stressed that "population collapse is the biggest threat to the civilsation". On another instance, he had tweeted: "Contrary to what many think, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have. I am a rare exception."

"Some people think that having fewer kids is better for the environment. Environment's gonna be fine even if we doubled the population. I know a lot of environmental stuff...Japan had lowest birth rate. Having kids is essential for maintaining civilization. We can't let civilization dwindle into nothing," Musk said.

There has been a rising trend of couples going childless and individuals avoiding marriage in many nations.