Elon Musk recently shared his worries on social media about the fast decline in the world’s population, calling it a serious global problem. On X (formerly Twitter), he posted a graph showing how populations are expected to change from 2018 to 2100, focusing on big drops in countries like China and India. The graph showed that while both China and India had over 1.5 billion people in 2018, their populations are predicted to shrink a lot by 2100, with China’s population expected to drop by 731 million.
On the other hand, countries like Nigeria, the United States, and Pakistan are expected to see their populations grow in the next few decades. According to the graph Musk shared, Nigeria’s population could reach 790 million by 2100, making it the second most populated country in the world, ahead of China.
Experts have been warning for a long time that the world is going through big changes in population because of things like people getting older, fewer babies being born, and people moving to other countries. This problem is clear in many places where the number of babies being born is much lower than the 2.1 children per woman needed to keep the population steady. In 2023, the number of babies born in England and Wales hit a record low of 1.44 children per woman. Around the world, the average number of children per woman has dropped a lot, from 5.3 in 1963 to about half of that today.
Even with these worries, some countries like the United States and Canada are likely to keep their populations fairly stable because of people moving there from other countries, which helps balance out the lower birth rates. On the other hand, countries like Indonesia and Pakistan are expected to see small drops in their populations by the year 2100.
Musk often talks about the risk of “population collapse,” which has led to more conversations about how changes in population could affect the economy, the workforce, and global progress in the future. His statements have added to the worries many experts already have about what might happen if the world’s population starts to shrink.