NY, August 31, 2025 – Elon Musk has issued a stark warning: Europe is on track for extinction if its birth rates do not recover to replacement levels. Writing on X, the billionaire responded to U.S. Senator Mike Lee, who shared statistics showing Scotland is experiencing more deaths than births.
“If the birth rate doesn’t at least return to replacement levels, Europe will die out,” Musk wrote.
Unless the birth rate at least gets back to replacement rate, Europe will die out https://t.co/0COU5Zj9QM
Stay Ahead with Azerbaijan.usGet exclusive translations, top stories, and analysis — straight to your inbox.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2025
Lee’s post cited figures showing that from January to July 2025, Scotland recorded 26,300 births and 35,200 deaths — 34 percent more deaths than births. He described this as “demographic collapse.”
The trend is reflected across the continent. In spring, the European statistics agency reported that just 3.67 million children were born in the EU in 2023, down 5.4 percent from 2022 — the sharpest drop since 1961. The average age of women giving birth to their first child rose to 29.8, while the fertility rate fell to 1.38 children per woman.
Declining birth rates have been a persistent problem since 2008, with experts linking the fall to the pandemic, rising costs of living, inflation, and anxieties over climate change.
Musk has sounded this alarm before. In December 2024, he declared that Germany — and Europe as a whole — was on the brink of disappearance due to low fertility. His latest warning underlines a demographic reality Europe has yet to reverse.
