Elon Musk thinks the 'world's population is accelerating towards collapse' — here's the reality

pulse

July 7, 2017 3:05 PM

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lamented the lack of public attention given to humanity's impending population implosion on Twitter recently.

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Elon Musk made a grim prediction on Twitter on Thursday.

A 2016 UBS report predicted Japan's population crisis could spread to other industrialized countries over the next 20 years, based on the finding that many of today's wealthy countries bear a striking resemblance to 1990s Japan.

The data don't necessarily support Musk's claim that the world is accelerating toward "collapse," however. The United Nations, for instance, still predicts the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.

In addition, analyses from Our World in Data show the global fertility rates tending toward just under two children per woman by 2100. But there have been cases when fertility declined rapidly. China, for example, went from above six children per woman to under three in a span of just 11 years between 1967-1978. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, took 95 years from 1815 to 1910.

The extent to which humanity is headed for "collapse" may depend on whether fertility rates decline rapidly like they did in China in the 1970s or gradually like the UK in the 1800s.

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