Elon Musk Warns of “The Death of Greece”

Elon Musk has voiced alarm over Greece’s demographic crisis, predicting the country’s “death” as birth rates continue to plunge.

Posting on his account on X, Musk shared reports that more than 700 schools have closed because of dwindling student numbers. He captioned the news with the phrase “the death of greece,” a stark comment on the country’s population decline.

According to the Financial Times, Greece will suspend operations at 766 out of its 14,857 schools in the new academic year. The closures come as a result of not meeting the legal minimum of 15 students per school, with most affected institutions being primary schools. Some may reopen if enrollments recover within three years, while schools in border regions and islands near Turkey remain open even with fewer children.

Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki acknowledged the scale of the challenge, noting that classrooms “reflect the state of our maternity wards and birth rates, which have been falling for decades.” Ministry data shows that the number of primary school students has dropped by more than 111,000 in the past seven years, a 19% decline since 2018.

The demographic downturn began during Greece’s debt crisis in the 2010s, when deaths began to outnumber births. Between 2001 and 2021, the number of women aged 20–40 fell by 500,000, or 31%. Combined with a wave of skilled emigration during the financial crisis, the result has been a sharp reduction in the country’s reproductive population.

Today, Greece’s fertility rate stands at just 1.35, with women having their first child at an average age above 32.

The closures are hitting rural areas particularly hard, with some children forced to travel up to 80 kilometers daily to attend school. While financial incentives have been introduced, experts warn that reversing the demographic decline will be extremely difficult.