New York: SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has drawn attention to India's declining birth rate, highlighting that the country's fertility rate has fallen below the replacement level required to maintain population stability.
In a post on social media platform X, Musk said, "India's birth rate has fallen below replacement. Among those most educated, India's birth rate fell below replacement many years ago."
Musk was responding to data shared by media outlet AF Post, which noted that India's total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped below the replacement threshold of 2.1 children per woman for the first time in the country's history. According to the post, India's fertility rate declined from 2.3 to 1.9 over the past decade.
It also highlighted that Delhi's fertility rate has fallen to 1.2, lower than that of Finland.
The AF Post report cited a June 4 article published by The Economist, which argued that India's population could begin shrinking in the coming years and may decline at a faster pace than previously anticipated. The trend was also highlighted in the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) 2025 State of World Population Report.
