Greece’s Demographic Decline Makes Birth Rebound Unattainable

2026-02-07 - 15:47

Greece’s demographic decline makes a return to 2011–2020 birth levels unattainable, as multiple factors continue to reduce births. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Katie Simmons Barth CC BY 2.0 The return of annual births in Greece to the levels recorded between 2011 and 2020 is unattainable in the coming decades because the number of women of reproductive age continues to shrink, according to new demographic research published by Greece’s Institute of Demographic Research. The findings come from a study by Vyron Kotzamanis, emeritus professor of demography at the University of Thessaly and director of the Institute of Demographic Research and Studies (IDEM), published in the latest issue of the institute’s digital bulletin PopNews. The research examines whether births and fertility could increase in Greece in the decades ahead and identifies the structural limits facing any recovery. What the experts found about Greece’s demographic decline Kotzamanis noted that the decline in births began around 1980 and has continued since, at varying speeds. The main driver has been a rapid fall in completed fertility among women born after 1960. Women born in the late 1950s had around two children on average, while those born around 1985 had fewer than 1.5. This long-term reduction in family size mirrors trends seen across Europe and the West, but Greece stands out for the persistence and depth of the decline. In much of western and northern Europe, fertility temporarily stabilised among interwar generations, producing