Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has made a provocative statement about South Korea’s fertility rate, claiming, “Two-thirds of South Korea will disappear.”
On Wednesday, Musk shared his comment on X (formerly known as Twitter), stating: “Two-thirds of all generations in South Korea will disappear. This is a population collapse.”
In his post, Musk also shared a graphic from South Korea’s National Statistics Office, which projects the country’s total fertility rate to be just 0.68 children per woman this year.
This isn’t Musk’s first comment on South Korea’s demographic challenges. In October, during a virtual appearance at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Musk raised concerns about the country’s declining birthrate.
At the time, Musk said, “In the short term, artificial intelligence (AI) is the most serious threat, but in the long term, it’s the global population collapse.” He continued, “Based on the current fertility rate, South Korea’s population will shrink to about one-third of its current size.” Musk also noted, “Europe’s population will shrink to less than half its current size.”
Musk, who has 11 children, has previously emphasized the importance of having more children. In 2022, he remarked, “South Korea, along with Hong Kong, is experiencing the fastest population decline in the world,” adding, “I have many children, and I encourage others to have children as well.”
Indeed, Musk has five sons with his first wife, Justine Wilson. After his second marriage ended, Musk had two sons and a daughter with his former partner, musician Grimes.
In addition to his family, Musk is also reported to have recently welcomed his third child with Shivon Zilis, a director at his brain-computer interface company, Neuralink. With this new addition, Musk’s total number of children now stands at 11.
Meanwhile, there is some optimistic news regarding South Korea’s fertility rate. Projections indicate that the country’s fertility rate is expected to rise this year, marking the first increase in nine years since 2015.
According to forecasts from the National Assembly’s Budget and Policy Office and the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee, South Korea’s fertility rate is expected to increase to 0.74 in 2023, up from last year’s rate of 0.72. If the forecast proves accurate, this will be the country’s first increase in almost a decade. This is a notable shift, especially compared to the earlier projection from the National Statistical Office, which predicted a lower fertility rate of just 0.68 for 2023.
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