New Delhi: Reacting on India’s demographic trends, Elon Musk has warned that it has fallen below the replacement level. He has reacted to a recent fertility data shared on X. Musk said India’s declining fertility rate is like a trend seen across several countries.
“India’s birth rate has fallen below replacement. Among those most educated, India’s birth rate fell below replacement many years ago,” read his tweet.
India’s total fertility rate has fa
llen below the replacement level of 2.1 for the first time in recorded history, according to a recent demographic data. The development signals a major shift in the country’s population trends, even as India remains the world’s most populous nation.
The data indicates that India’s TFR has declined to around 1.9 births per woman, down from about 2.3 a decade ago. This means that, on average, Indian families are now having fewer children than what is required to maintain a stable population size over the long term.
Delhi, for instance, has recorded a fertility rate of around 1.2, significantly lower than both the national average and even several developed countries. Experts link this decline to factors such as rising education levels, urbanisation, delayed marriages, changing aspirations, and increased focus on smaller families.
Demographers, however, caution that while falling fertility rates are a sign of socio-economic change and improved living standards, they also raise long-term policy challenges. A sustained decline could reduce the size of the working-age population.