Washington: Highlighting the declining fertility rates in several Asian countries, Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned on Thursday that if the trend continues, countries like Singapore and others could face extinction.
CEO Musk was replying to the post of a social media user Mario Nawfal on X.
The post mentioned that Singapore’s birth rate has hit rock bottom—just 0.97 kids per woman, far below the 2.1 needed to sustain a population.
“Translation? More seniors, fewer workers, and a shrinking labor force. From factories to food delivery, robots are stepping in where manpower is falling short. By 2030, nearly 1 in 4 Singaporeans will be over 65, and the support ratio has plummeted to 4 working adults per senior. In 2014, it was 6. The government is urging more hiring of older workers and turning to robots—Singapore has the world’s second-highest robot density—to plug the gaps,” Mario Nawfal posted on X.
To this Elon Musk replied and said, “Singapore (and many other countries) are going extinct”.
Singapore Witnessing Decline In Fertility Rate
Singapore has experienced a dramatic decline in its Total Fertility Rate (TFR) over the past three decades. In 2023, the country’s resident TFR dropped to a historic low of 0.97, marking the first time it has fallen below 1.0. This indicates that, on average, each woman is having fewer than one child.
The main factor behind this decline is a shift in societal norms. Government data reveals that an increasing number of women in their prime childbearing years (25–34) are opting to remain single. Furthermore, the marital fertility rate among women in their 20s has significantly decreased, accounting for roughly 32% of the overall TFR decline. While marital fertility rates for women aged 25–34 fell sharply between 1990 and 2005, there was a slight rebound in 2023.
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