The world’s richest person continues to sound the alarm on a population collapse with a declining birth rate. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk told his followers on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) that he is “unusual” when it comes to having children. Here’s what he meant.
What Happened: Musk was back on Twitter this week warning of how the U.S. birth rate is declining and has been below the minimum sustainable level for around 50 years.
Musk commented on his old post from May 24 that shared a graph showing the country being below a sustainable level of 2.1.
“Past two years have been a demographic disaster,” Musk tweeted.
In a witty remark, Musk highlighted how he has been a part of welcoming eight children into the world.
“I mean, I’m doing my part haha.”
Musk also makes a claim that might not be true by linking the wealthiest people to the number of children they have.
“This is highly unusual btw. Statistically, the richer someone is, the fewer kids they have.”
Related Link: Elon Musk Reiterates Warning About Population Collapse
Why It’s Important: Musk has called out the risk of the declining population due to the lower number of children in families. Claims of wealthy people having fewer children might not be true.
The current top 10 wealthiest people in the world have the following number of children.
- Elon Musk: 7 (previously 8, one passed away)
- Jeff Bezos: 4
- Bernard Arnault: 5
- Bill Gates: 3
- Warren Buffett: 3
- Larry Page: 2
- Mukesh Ambani: 3
- Sergey Brin: 3
- Gautam Adani: 2
- Steve Ballmer: 2
The average of the top 10 wealthiest people in the world is 3.6 children. The top three richest people in the world have the most children of the 10 wealthiest people in the world.
In 2021, a study from GoCompare found that of the world’s billionaires, most had three or more children with the following percentages found:
- No children: 0%
- 1 child: 9%
- 2 children: 23%
- 3 children: 25%
- 4 children: 17%
- 5 or more children: 21%
While Musk’s latest comments call out the U.S. birth rate, he has made similar claims to international territories.
Musk has certainly done his part to help with population control by welcoming eight children into the world, but his comments about the richest people having fewer children don’t line up at the current time.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson via Flickr Creative Commons
