OR demographic Crisis is deteriorating. According to the study conducted by the team of Assistant Professor Iphigenia Kokkalis, the Greece It records since 2011, consistently negative natural balances (minus births) to which negative immigration balances are added. Result: Net loss of about 500,000 inhabitants in thirteen years.
In 2023, demographics show that only 72,300 births were recorded, ie half compared to the period 1950-1970. The fertility index currently ranges between 1.3 and 1.4 children per woman, much below the replenishment limit (2.07). Greece also has almost 23% of its population over 65, one million more than young people aged 0-14.
The ratio of couples without children is also increasing: about 1 in 5 generation born around 1980 will not have a child.
Social and economic causes
Population decline is not only explained by biological factors. The exhibition identifies deeper reasons: flight of new graduates abroad, lack of professional perspectives, absence of meritocracy, as well as a housing market that has become inaccessible.
According to the researchers, these conditions push many young people either to leave the country or to delay the creation of a family. Increasing the age of marriage and the birth age of the first child further aggravates the problem.
A worrying future
The study recalls that the mass immigration of the 1990s-2010 had temporarily slowed down the country’s aging. But from the financial crisis onwards, departures far exceed arrivals. Unless anything changes, experts warn, Greece is heading for even more intense demographic shrinkage in the coming decades.