Elon Musk is very worried about the world -- and his latest focus is Italy.
Critics of the Tesla (TSLA) CEO might ask why he talks about Italy when none of his companies are there.
The answer is that the entrepreneur is on a mission to transform civilization. With this in mind, he has asserted that a sustainable energy economy is possible and has gone so far as to awaken the dream of humans one day inhabiting Mars
Musk, who wants history to recognize him as one of the great geniuses, therefore considers it his duty to warn of the dangers that threaten the planet.
'Very Concerning'
In recent months he's been meddling in the internal politics of certain countries.
For example, in recent days French President Emmanuel Macron faces social discontent because he has forced a major pension reform into law.
Demonstrations, sometimes violent, have shaken France since the bill was introduced. It was finally adopted on March 20.
While the unions continue to protest, Musk says Macron has done well to raise the retirement age, which the entrepreneur argues was very low. He did not hesitate to give his public support to Macron, who is currently very weak politically.
"Retirement age in France is too low. That’s a legit issue," Musk said on March 18.
The serial entrepreneur also looks closely at what is happening a little further south of France and in particular in Italy. What worries him the most in the country is the continuous drop in the population in parallel with its aging.
It all started with a message from cybersecurity researcher Andrea Stroppa, who cited the latest official figures warning that the Italian population is collapsing.
"New official data: Italy's population continues to collapse," Stroppa posted on March 21. "The population declined by 0.3% or 179,000 units over the previous year, according to the national statistics institute. The birth rate in 2022 fell by 1.9%."
Musk, who has since been warning about the decline in birth rates in major countries, did not hesitate to comment and sounded the alarm.
"Very concerning," the billionaire said.
His worries seemed to be shared by Twitter users.
"Houses in Italy are just sitting empty. 1,000 abandoned hilltop cities," said one user.
"Why so many country's population declining? What's the problem here to solve?" another Twitter user asked.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with adults leaving their parents house later in life?" suggested another user.
Fastest Population Decline in the West
Italy is facing two issues, according to demographers and official data. The number of elderly people is jumping while the birth rate slumps.
The country is therefore forced to manage a boom in the aging population. These factors make Italy the western country with the fastest population decline.
The number of births in Italy fell in 2020 to its lowest level since the country's unification in 1861, according to Istat, the Italian National Institute of Statistics. This was the the 12th consecutive year of decline.
It stood at 404,892, or 15,192 fewer births than in 2019. The number of deaths rose to 746,146 in 2020 and the population decreased to 59.3 million inhabitants.
The decline continued in 2021, according to available data from January to September, with 12,500 fewer births over the period than in the first nine months of 2020. The average number of children per woman residing in Italy was 1.24 in 2020, one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.
This isn't the first time Musk has tried to draw attention to Italy's demographic problems. He did this last May as well.
