The population decline in Greece, which has been steady since 2011, will lead the country to having the oldest people in the EU by 2030. That is the conclusion of a report by Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, about the declining population in the Union.

If the report’s predictions come true, Greece will take the aging lead over Italy in the EU. With half of Greeks already over 50 years old, EU Commission estimates that the country’s population will decrease by almost a million in 2050 and by 2 million in 2070.

This data is consistent with various other research conducted on the population of Greece and Cyprus. One of them, published this year by the Health Research Policy and Systems in collaboration with WHO, concludes that the two countries will “acquire the characteristics of an aging population, putting a significance pressure on the social and health systems of both countries.”

It points out that both Greece and Cyprus should reform their social and health policy agenda to confront population aging and its consequence. They should “adopt fertility incentives and family policies to increase fertility, and migrants’ inclusiveness policies to improve the demographic structure and the economic activity.”

The almost decade-long financial crisis in Greece has led to an increase of the death / birth ratio. All the more Greek couples and single women are choose not to procreate, given the country’s economic dire straits. Pessimism in general is at an all time high.

Greece rapidly aging by the minute

Another factor in the aging of the population is the reluctance by the Greek state to accept, include and put to work some of the migrants reaching its shores. This attitude, shared by the majority of Greek society, may slowly lead to the breakdown of the already semi-bankrupt Greek Social Security system.

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