Country on course for demographic impasse

Greece’s population is expected to decline over the next 20 years while the economic crisis in the previous decade only made matters worse, mainly due to the emigration of 450,000 working age people. According to researchers and scientists at a conference on demographic trends organized by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) at the French Institute in Athens, the Greek state should take measures to expand the productive base of the working population and support and improve the health of Greece’s increasingly aging population. They noted that migration could reverse the situation.

“Those who are in favor of population growth cannot be against migration,” said Christos Bagavos, a professor at Panteion University. “The demographic crisis is not a matter of low fertility, but of the number of people who are of reproductive age,” he said, referring to the drop in women aged 15-49.