Greece’s demographic crisis continues to intensify, with new research showing a dramatic decline in births over the past two decades, raising concerns about the country’s long-term population outlook.
According to demographic analyses by the Institute of Demographic Research and Studies, annual births have fallen by 44%, from an average of 117,600 in 2008-09 to around 65,000 in 2025-26. At the same time, the average age at which women have children has continued to rise, increasing from just over 30 years in 2008-09 to more than 32 years in 2025-26.
Demography professor Vyrón Kotzamanis says the long-term decline, which began in the early 1980s apart from a brief recovery between 2003 and 2009, is primarily the result of lower fertility among women born after 1960. Women born in the late 1950s had an average of around two children, while those born around 1985 are expected to have fewer than 1.5.
The decline has also been accelerated by a shrinking population of women of childbearing age. Between 2008-09 and 2025-26, the number of women aged 25 to 44 fell by around 480,000, or 28%. Researchers attribute this to decades of lower birth rates as well as migration, with many young adults leaving the country over the past 15 years.
Mothers are getting older
The study also highlights a significant shift in the age profile of mothers.
Today, only 30% of births are to women under the age of 30, compared with 43% in 2008-09 and 78% in 1980. Meanwhile, births to women aged 40 and over have more than doubled since 2008-09 and are now estimated to account for more than 11% of all births.
The increasing age of motherhood has coincided with wider use of assisted reproductive technologies. According to the analysis, around one in 10 babies in Greece is now born through assisted reproduction.
The report also notes that births outside marriage have more than doubled over the past two decades, while approximately one in seven births is to a foreign-born mother.
Part of a wider European trend
Researchers stress that many of the social changes affecting fertility are common across developed European countries, including greater urbanization, higher female participation in the workforce, longer education, housing difficulties, rising child-rearing costs and changing family structures.
However, Greece stands out for the scale of its decline. According to the study, it recorded the largest percentage drop in births among EU countries outside the former socialist states, both between 1980 and 2008-09 and again from 2008-09 to 2025-26.
Kotzamanis argues that Greece’s demographic challenges have been compounded by the economic difficulties of recent decades, including unemployment, lower real incomes, barriers to stable employment and, more recently, the housing crisis.
These factors, he says, have increased uncertainty among younger generations, making it more difficult for many people to start families or have the number of children they would ideally like.
