Recently, Elon Musk said he fears that the decline of the world population is "one of the world's biggest issues". This concern of the Tesla owner took him to posting a graph posted on X which originated from a tweet of Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a Silicon Valley based club, about their anticipation of change in population 2018 - 2100.
The graph showed the population of the prominent countries like Nigeria, the United States, Indonesia, and Pakistan, focusing on the nearing demographic transitions.
Tesla Owners Silicon Valley posted a graph stating, "Population collapse is humanity's greatest threat… Elon Musk." Musk retweeted the post and replied, "Yes."
Elon Musk has often expressed his fears over the global population decline. He warned that "population collapse is coming".
For years, experts have recognised that the world’s population is declining, while there is ongoing discussion regarding how fast this trend will occur and which countries would be most affected.
Notably, population loss is mainly caused by low fertility rates, immigration, and an aging population. In many countries, the average number of children per woman falls below 2.1, the level required to maintain a stable population. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average number of children per woman in England and Wales will be 1.44 in 2023, the lowest it has ever been.
Global fertility rates have plummeted, falling from an average of 5.3 children per woman in 1963 to less than half that figure now, reports the Daily Express.
A graph published in 2020 indicates that, though both India and China had populations of around 1.5 billion in 2018, their trajectories are expected to diverge considerably.
The country's population would drop to close to 1.1 billion by 2100. This decline of nearly 400 million. In contrast, China's population is expected to shrink sharply by nearly 731 million to 731.9 million. This will leave Nigeria at 790.1 million in a second position for the world by the end of the century.
According to an analysis by experts at the University of Washington in 2020, population decline, especially in China and India, may be more rapid than previously estimated. Although fertility rates are below replacement levels, the United States is expected to be the fourth-largest country in 2100, with population stability being supported by positive net migration. Canada and Australia are also expected to maintain semi-stable populations through migration.
Current growth countries like Indonesia and Pakistan are likely to see small population reductions by the year 2100, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia will outnumber them around the turn of the century.
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