Research shows<\/a> the primary drivers are extreme cost-of-living pressures, such as skyrocketing housing, grocery, and childcare expenses. <\/p>\nOn top of that, women are delaying having children, and there\u2019s also been a widespread change in cultural attitudes and a shift towards prioritising career and lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people flocked to the comment section of Musk\u2019s post to slam the billionaire for being out of touch with reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cElon Musk calling Australians endangered over birthrates is wild. Maybe people just can\u2019t afford kids anymore. But sure, blame society instead of the economy,\u201d one user fired back.<\/p>\n
\u201cBillionaires can\u2019t put two and two together \u2014 people aren\u2019t having children because they can\u2019t afford to,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n
Many echoed the sentiment that economic pressures were to blame<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad but wealth inequality has caused this. It\u2019s too expensive to have kids,\u201d someone wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cCost of living and housing are straight up murdering the birthrate everywhere, not just Australia. Gotta make having kids actually affordable again or we\u2019re cooked,\u201d another agreed.<\/p>\n
Some argued the world doesn\u2019t actually need more people anyway, with one person pointing out: \u201c[There are] too many people on this planet as it is! 8 billion and our planet can\u2019t sustain this many people as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate even sparked a bit of a gender war.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest: birthrates are falling because many women don\u2019t see men today as suitable partners or fathers,\u201d one woman wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling you this is because women don\u2019t like men anymore,\u201d another agreed.<\/p>\n
Of course, plenty of people just used the opportunity to poke fun. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving given birth twice, I am fully with all Australian women who say: \u2018Yeah, nah, I\u2019m right, mate\u2019,\u201d one mum humorously remarked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe you [Musk] should move there and help increase their birthrate,\u201d another teased.<\/p>\n
One user took the opportunity to note that: \u201cNobody wants an Australian accent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning overseas<\/p>\n
Australia is far from the only country struggling to procreate \u2014 across OECD nations, fertility is sitting at an average rate of 1.5.<\/p>\n
The situation is even more dire in Asia, with South Korea sitting at a catastrophic 0.7 births per woman, while Japan has a famously low rate of around 1.3.<\/p>\n
In a desperate bid to tackle its own falling birthrate, one local government in Kochi, Japan, is actually paying people to date.<\/p>\n
Officials are offering up to $125 to residents aged 20\u201339 to use certified dating apps.<\/p>\n
The taxpayer-funded subsidy covers registration, membership and subscription fees, making it easier for young people to start meeting potential partners as the population continues to age rapidly.<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Elon Musk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An outspoken tech billionaire has sparked fierce debate online for his \u201ccooked\u201d assessment of our nation\u2019s future. Reacting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2620,2095,1724,64,63,689,302552,302548,169,60121,302559,302551,302550,167600,302549,302556,205446,9239,3120,20558,302553,255745,302545,302557,2041,2067,677,13576,302544,302555,82595,302547,128,5813,302558,302546,2614,34455,338,302554],"class_list":{"0":"post-624625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-agence-france-presse","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-australian-accent","15":"tag-australian-birthrate","16":"tag-australian-bureau-of-statistics","17":"tag-australian-women","18":"tag-australiasky-news","19":"tag-certified-dating-apps","20":"tag-childcare-expenses","21":"tag-comment-section","22":"tag-cultural-attitudes-focusing","23":"tag-decline-birthrate","24":"tag-desperate-bid","25":"tag-eastern-asia","26":"tag-elon-musk","27":"tag-endangered-species","28":"tag-extreme-cost-of-living-pressures","29":"tag-fertility-rate","30":"tag-fierce-debate","31":"tag-jaimee-rogers","32":"tag-north-america","33":"tag-northern-america","34":"tag-oceania","35":"tag-oecd","36":"tag-outspoken-tech-billionaire","37":"tag-quiet-crisis","38":"tag-rate-sits","39":"tag-replacement-rate","40":"tag-science","41":"tag-south-korea","42":"tag-subscription-fees","43":"tag-tech-billionaire","44":"tag-united-states-of-america","45":"tag-wealth-inequality","46":"tag-wildlife","47":"tag-x-naomi-kaplan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}