The world’s most famous father of 14 known children has revealed his biggest fear: a falling birthrate.
Elon Musk shared a not-so-shocking revelation that he’s concerned about declining birth rates across the West in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.
Appearing on Special Report on Fox News on Friday, for the second night in a row, Musk was asked about the biggest thing that “keeps you up at night.”
After pausing to consider the question for a full 12 seconds, Musk responded, “Well, there are a lot of things that I suppose I worry about, and so many things will seem esoteric to people. You know, the birth rate is very low in almost every country. And unless that changes, civilization will disappear.”
He continued, “America had the lowest birth rate I believe ever, that was last year. Places like Korea, the birth rate is one-third replacement rate. That means in three generations, Korea will be 3 percent or 4 percent of its current size. Nothing seems to be turning that around. Humanity is dying. And people—it’s just not something we evolve to react to.”
Musk appears to have stepped up the pace of his serial fatherhood in recent years. He has 14 acknowledged children by four women, 13 of whom survive. The latest, Seldon Lycurgus Musk, was born this month. His first child with first wife Justine Wilson died of sudden infant death children and they had five more children, including his trans daughter Vivian who is now one of his most outspoken critics. He then had three children with on-off girlfriend Grimes, one of whom is X, the four-year-old son with whom he is often seen. She is suing for sole custody.
In 2022, he had twins via IVF with his Neuralink employee Shivon Zilis, who were born just before his second child with Grimes. He and Zillis have two more children, while he has also tacitly acknowledged a baby born to conservative journalist Ashley St. Clair in October 2024.
That isn’t the only thing that keeps the DOGE director up at night: he’s also worried about America’s future, and the future of western civilization as a whole. Musk told Baier, “I mean, I worry generally about the strength of America. America is the central column that holds up all the places in civilization… If that column fails, it’s all over, you can’t run off to New Zealand or some other place. It’s over. So either we strengthen and make sure America is strong and will be strong for a long time or that roof’s coming down.”
Musk has at least one fact correct: the U.S. fertility rate did reach a historic low last year, per the CDC, marking a second consecutive year of declining birth rates.
South Korea’s birth rate is even lower; compared to the U.S., where approximately 11 babies are born per 1,000 people, South Korea’s rate is around 4.7 babies per 1,000 people. This rate is actually an increase on previous years, rising in 2024 for the first time in nine years, although it is still too low to resolve the country’s looming population stability crisis.
The global birth rate has been declining steadily since the 1960s and the end of the so-called Baby Boom. Despite this, the United Nations currently projects that the global population will continue to grow until at least 2100.
Musk isn’t actually concerned about humanity dying. He is specifically concerned about the birth rate in predominantly white, western countries, as the second half of his response shows; his concern is the future of western civilization, not human civilization.
This concern hasn’t led him to encourage President Donald Trump to do something obvious to reverse America’s potential population decline—like encouraging, not restricting, immigration, particularly from countries with high birth rates. Still, Musk is doing more than his part to personally ensure a rise in birth rates. The billionaire is the father of 14 known children with four women.
Musk voiced similar concerns about in his first joint television interview with Trump last month, telling Sean Hannity, “If the central pillar on western civilization that is America falls, the whole roof comes down and there is no escape.”
The potential collapse of western civilization is clearly a preoccupation of Musk’s, and one that will undoubtedly define many of his actions during Trump’s second term.
