Low birth rate in Greece worries Church

The worrying phenomenon of a low birth rate in Greece again made headlines this week, with the European Commission saying the eastern Mediterranean nation of roughly 11 million is among the EU member-states with a declining population — as it falls below the EU average.

According to Commission figures for 2018, the European average is 1.55 children per female, although certain countries record a figure that is less than 1.25, which includes Greece.

This negative trend has repeatedly been discussed by the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece’s hierarchy, with the special rapporteur on the subject before members of the Holy Synod – the Metropolitan of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia, His Eminence Gabriel – referring to the demographic crisis as the biggest problem facing Greece, as it not only touches on the long-term prospect of territorial integrity but on the future of the very ethnos itself.

Most of the researchers active in demographic studies point to a figure of 2.1 children per female as necessary for keeping a country’s population stable.

The Commission report, on its part, has sounded alarm bells, as it predicts that in Greece the age groups of between 10 and 69 will decrease by between 10 to 15 percent up to 2070, while the age group above 70 will more than double.

If the birth rate remains the same, then Greece’s by the native-born population will fall to 8.5 million by 2070, with an explosive increase in the number of people above the age of 65.

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