A social media post by tech magnate Elon Musk declaring that Singapore is “going extinct” has struck a nerve in the city state, where demographic challenges including record-low fertility rates are testing its policies to sustain economic growth.
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On Thursday, Musk retweeted a user’s post referring to Singapore’s use of robots, which were “stepping in where manpower is falling short”. The user also noted that by 2030, nearly one in four Singaporeans would be over 65.
In his retweet, Musk added that “Singapore (and many other countries) are going extinct”.
In a Reddit thread about the post, which has garnered more than 1,500 likes, netizens debated the city state’s use of immigration and how this would affect Singapore’s national identity.
“In 200 years the Singaporeans today will be all new immigrants of today. Like we are from immigrants 200 years ago … Singaporeans will always be here. The national identity will evolve. Just hopefully still remain as [an] independent Singapore and not under another country as a vassal or puppet state,” said one user.
Government data showed that Singapore’s total fertility rate fell to a historic low of 0.97 last year. In the annual Population in Brief report released in September that outlines Singapore’s population trends, the government noted that the decline in fertility could have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which “resulted in economic uncertainty and disrupted marriage and parenthood plans for some Singaporean couples”.
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The government also noted that declining birth rates are happening across advanced societies, where more people are postponing having families and having fewer children to prioritise their careers, while attitudes are shifting towards marriage and parenthood, and there are concerns about child-raising costs, among other things.
Calling “ultra low” fertility rates an “existential challenge”, Leong Chan-Hoong, a senior fellow and head of Social Cohesion Research Programme at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said: “If we can’t reverse or address this problem, it will have a long-term impact on our social and national fabric.”