Overview

• Musk urged that parents who choose to have children should have at least three to offset those opting for none or one and guard against long-term decline.
• His plea responded to a Fortune-cited study that raises the replacement fertility rate from 2.1 to 2.7 children per woman to account for childlessness and gender imbalances.
• Global fertility has plunged from an average of 5.3 children per woman in 1963 to under 2.5 today, with the US at 1.66, Italy at 1.29 and Japan at 1.30.
• The latest UNFPA report warns that high child-rearing costs and difficulty finding partners are limiting people’s ability to meet their desired family size, pushing India’s rate down to 1.9.
• As a father of 14 children with five women, Musk has linked falling birth rates to the decline of past civilizations such as ancient Rome.