Elon Musk has warned Australians are at risk of going extinct in response to data showing the birth rate is far below replacement level.
The Tesla billionaire responded to a post on X about the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, which shows the country’s fertility rate has fallen to 1.481 from a 20th century peak of 3.548 in 1961.
The post, by an account called Doge Designer, also referenced a projection from the Australian Government’s Centre of Population that the total fertility rate is expected to fall to a new record-low of 1.42 children per woman in 2025-26. The replacement level is 2.1.
“Australians are becoming an endangered species,” Musk said in response.
According to ABS statistics released last month, natural increase made up about one quarter (112,600 people) of the population increase in the year ending on September 30, 2025, while the remainder (311,000) was from net overseas migration.
Many Aussies responded to Musk’s post by calling for an end to mass immigration, and saying that cost-of-living and housing crises were making it too difficult for people to have children.
“Australia will cease to exist as you have known it growing up. You can thank the people who rule over you for that. Not sure why you keep voting them into power over and over again. You’re a masochist, a real weirdo,” said United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet.
“We are deliberately being replaced by the third world. The Government has made it unaffordable and unsafe to raise children in Australia,” wrote political commentator Lozzy B.
“Replacement mass immigration is accelerating this. Almost no one can afford a home,” wrote Aus Integrity.
“Already are. We are being replaced by immigrants who breed a lot (account majority for that even low birth rate) and do not share Australia’s values and culture. Its racists to even ask them to declare if they share those values or can speak English when migrating over here” read another popular response.
Musk has regularly spoken out about falling fertility rates in western countries, and has previously posted on X: “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilisation than global warming.”
Header image: Elon Musk (Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
