Greece facing “population collapse” as unexpected deaths soar

Athens: The population decline in Greece has reached alarming levels, and it could become the world’s first country to suffer “population collapse”, a new report has said. This started a debate on social media, with billionaire Elon Musk joining in and expressing concern. The report paints a scary picture claiming that heart failure, stroke, blood clots and cancer among otherwise healthy young people have caused the mortality rates to skyrocket in Greece. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the prospect of population collapse a “ticking time bomb” and a “national threat”.

Reacting to the report, Mr Musk said in a post on X, “Greece is one of dozens of countries experiencing population collapse due to low birth rates.”

Population collapse, also known as depopulation, refers to the phenomenon of a sudden and irreversible decline in the number of living people in a society.

“This is one of the most serious problems we face not only in Greece but in the EU as a whole,” Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said last week, referring to the rapidly declining population in his country. “It is our priority … whatever it takes.”

Greece’s birth rate fell by 30 per cent from 2011 to 2021 to under 84,000 per year, slipping below the death rate, according to the country’s national Hellenic Statistical Service, also known as ELSTAT.

Al-Jazeera said in a report that this represented a loss of nearly 2 billion euros a year in state revenue over the long term considering each Greek paid on average 5,758 euros ($6,125) in taxes and social security contributions.

The data further showed the Greece’s population will fall by over a million by 2050. Prime Minister Mitsotakis said that the country effectively recorded just one birth per two deaths in 2022.

In 1932, Greece had over 185,000 births and fewer than 118,000 deaths, ELSTAT said.

The OECD also projects Greece’s population to fall from 10.4 million last year to just over 10 million in 2030.