Greece is shrinking, growing old, dying and not giving birth.
According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the number of live births amounted to 76,541 (39,558 boys and 36,983 girls) recording a decrease of 10.3% in comparison to 85,346 (43,998 boys and 41,348 girls), in 2021.
The number of births does not include stillbirths, which in 2022 amounted to 446, recording a decrease of 1.5% compared to the 453 stillbirths in 2021.
In 2022, 140,801 deaths (70,802 men and 69,999 women) were recorded, decreased by 2.2% compared to 143,923 deaths (73,420 men and 70,503 women), in 2021. Infant deaths amounted to 239 in 2022, reducing the infant mortality rate (number of deaths of infants aged less than one year per 1,000 live births) from 3.48 in 2021 to 3.12 in 2022.
According to the UN, Greece will be one of the 20 countries that will record the largest population decline in the world by 2050: This decline is estimated at 13.4%, which means that in 2050 the Greek population will have fallen below 9 million. According to IOBE, by 2100 it will have shrunk to 8.3 million. In short, the demographic crisis is taking on the dimensions of a national threat, not necessarily for patriotic or even geopolitical reasons. The threat is primarily economic and developmental. Research by diaNEOsis shows that, if current demographic trends are not halted, GDP losses by 2100 will reach 58 billion euros (31%), employment will decrease by 2.1 million people, public revenues by 14 billion euros and the GDP per capita by approximately 1,740 euros.
The professor and former minister Tasos Giannitsis warned, speaking on ‘Naftemporiki TV’, that an aging population with a parallel widening of the technology and innovation gap means a reduction of active and specialized human resources, with a strong impact on the quality of investments, economic growth and living standards.
