Australia’s baby drought hits new low amid warnings from the likes of Elon Musk: ‘There’s not enough people’

For years everyone from David Attenborough to Prince William have warned of the risks of overpopulation, now falling birth rates — including a new record low in Australia — are being treated as a cause for alarm. And when eccentric billionaire Elon Musk pops his head up to do a head count - “there are not enough people” - you start to wonder if reproduction needs a rethink. The Tesla chief executive should know because, as the father of six kids, he has more than just skin in the game. Australia’s fertility rate hit a record low in 2020 of just 1.58 births per woman, fuelled by the same social and medical trends that have seen rates steadily decline from 1.95 babies per woman since 2010. WA is having slightly more babies than the national average, recording a fertility rate of 1.7 last year, but still nowhere near the 2.1 babies per women required to replace the population. That was after a 3.3 per cent drop in the number of babies born in 2020 to 32,420, versus a 3.7 per cent drop nationally. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures were released just days after Musk used an appearance at a Wall Street Journal event to warn that falling birth rates were “one of the biggest risks to civilisation”. “There are not enough people,” he said. “I can’t emphasis this enough. There are not enough people. “So many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. “It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers, if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.” Even the Chinese Government, which notoriously championed a one-child policy, got into the handwringing. An editorial in a state-run news website suggested Communist party members should have three children for the good of the country. Closer to home, former Treasurer Peter Costello, who once urged Australian couples to have “one for the country” — and offered a libido-boosting $3000 baby bonus to do so — publicly warned that falling birth rates would hurt the economy. Australia’s fertility rate has been below replacement levels since 1976, mirroring falls across much of particularly the western world. Roger Hart, professor of reproductive medicine at the University of WA and medical director of Fertility Specialists of WA, said he was not surprised by the ABS figures, which he said could not be attributed to COVID-19 because most babies born in 2020 would have been conceived pre-pandemic. He said other than a “blip” in the wake of the 2004 baby bonus, Australia’s birth rate had been steadily falling. “Birth rates are always trending down and there are various reasons for that,” he said. “The time when a couple wants to have a baby (now) the woman is a little older, plus potentially there is some evidence that sperm counts might be diminishing.” He said socially it was also considered more acceptable for couples to choose not to have children. ABS Director of Demography, Beidar Cho said the record low fertility rate “can be attributed to fewer births and birth registrations in most jurisdictions in a year marked by COVID-19 disruptions”. “The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards later childbearing,” she said. “Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers (31.6 years) and a fall in Australia’s total fertility rate.” Fertility rates may be dropping but new mum Aimie Preston is bucking the trend — her little boy was born on Thursday. “It’s very surreal, because he came very quickly, we only just made it the hospital in time,” she said. “We’re really excited, especially my two year old daughter, she just wants to cuddle him.”