Elon Musk has again expressed his concerns about the global population crisis. This time he warned Italy's population would be exhausted due to the low birth rate.
In a tweet, Musk posted World Bank data showing countries with the lowest birth rates in the world, including Italy.
Musk re-emphasized his point in a reply to a tweet by cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa, who tweeted a chart from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) showing Italy's birth rate has steadily fallen since the 1960s.
"Italy will have no more people if this trend continues," Musk wrote in a tweet.
Italy will have no people if these trends continue
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2022
According to Istat data, there will be seven babies born and 12 deaths per 1,000 people in Italy in 2021. Istat estimates that Italy's population will decrease by 20% by 2070, or about 12 million people.
Musk also posted a chart from the Wall Street Journal showing the birthrate in the United States has fallen below the "replacement level" over the past 50 years. In a subsequent tweet, the richest man in the world also explains why he has so many children.
"Contrary to what many people think, the richer a person is, the fewer children they have," said Musk, who has seven children.
"I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one 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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2022
This isn't the first time Musk has addressed the topic of low birth rates and the threat of a human population crisis. In a talk with Jack Ma at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in 2019, Musk said the population crisis would be one of the biggest threats to humanity's future.
"Most people believe that we have too many people on this planet. This is an outdated thought," said the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla.