Elon Musk has long voiced his concerns about the low birth rate. In fact, he thinks the population decline will affect his and SpaceX's efforts to establish a human colony on Mars.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla revealed his thoughts through a series of tweets on Twitter last Wednesday. At first he just said that people should be more worried about population decline.
"The UN's projections make absolutely no sense. Just multiply last year's birth rate by life expectancy. Given the downward trend in birth rates, this is the best case unless it can be reversed," Musk wrote, as quoted by Business Insider, Friday (21/1/ 2022).
"If there aren't enough people on Earth, then there definitely won't be enough for Mars," he continued, followed by a sad face emoji.
If there aren't enough people for Earth, then there definitely won't be enough for Mars ️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2022
It's natural for Musk to be concerned about the impact of population decline on the potential to bring human life on Mars. This 50-year-old man has long had ambitions to send humans and build new life on Mars to avoid a major catastrophe on Earth.
Musk and SpaceX plan to land astronauts on Mars within the next 5-10 years. Although this is just a plan, Musk dreams of being able to send one million people to Mars by 2050.
Bringing one million people to Mars is a small amount, especially when compared to the current human population of billions. But Musk is clearly concerned that his ambitions could fail if the birth rate on Earth continues to decline.
In the 1950s, women worldwide had an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. Recent research has found the birth rate declined to a level of 2.4 in 2017, and is predicted to decline to 1.6.
If the birth rate has fallen below 2.1 then the human population begins to decline. The research team predicts the peak population will hit 9.73 billion in 2064 before this population decline occurs.
This isn't the first time Musk has shared his concerns about the declining birthrate. Last month, the father-of-six commented that people should have more children or civilization will be destroyed.
"I think one of the biggest threats to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birth rate," Musk said while speaking at a Wall Street Journal event.
