Elon Musk, who wants humanity to colonise the red planet, believes the Earth is facing population collapse. The father of six made the statement on Twitter while responding to a post by a Tesla fan club, which lauded Musk’s attempts to stave off population decline.
Musk noted that population is a much bigger issue than most people think as he warned that humanity needs more people in order to colonise Mars.
His comment about population collapse apparently refers to the decline in the global fertility rate, which according to a report from this year stands at around 2.4 children per woman. This is almost half of what the global fertility rate was in 1950 (4.7 children per woman). At the same time, the world’s population is growing older, with the United Nations projecting that the number of people aged 65 or older will reach 1.5 billion by 2050.