US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says that the United States will have to face the consequences of a declining birth rate.
“Big reckoning coming due to low birth rate. Japan is a leading indicator,” Musk said on Twitter, commenting on US media reports regarding the projected depletion of US Social Security funds by 2033.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last month that the next six to seven years will be the country’s “last chance” to reverse the long-standing birth rate decline.
In 2022, Japan saw 799,700 births, which is 43,000, or 5%, less than in 2021. The birth rate fell below 800,000 for the first time since 1899. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimated in 2017 that total births in Japan would not drop below 800,000 before 2030.
In the United States, about 3.7 million children were born in 2021. As of 2020, the US birth rate was 1.64, while Japan’s birth rate was 1.34. At the same time, the birth rate in the United States has been declining for the past five decades.
