Empty villages, disillusioned young workers, and government officials scrambling for solutions: this is the stark reality Euronews uncovered in Greece, where the country is bracing for a major population collapse fuelled by plummeting numbers of births, mass emigration, and low fertility rates.
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00:00Many years ago, the National Police was perhaps the loudest rally of all the last years for
00:13the demography.
00:14The data of 2022 were indeed exceptionally heart-wrenching, the country recorded essentially
00:22one birth, if not two deaths.
00:26Empty villages like this one on the Greek island of Chios serve as a reminder of a new
00:42kind of threat facing the country as a whole.
00:45After years of economic hardship, many young Greeks have decided to either move abroad
00:49or delay starting a family.
00:51With its population expected to plummet in the coming decades, the nation is not grappling
00:56with a severe demographic crisis.
00:58I've come here to understand the reasons behind this issue and its implications for Greece's
01:03future.
01:06A traditional religious ceremony is held in a remote village of Chios, an island of 50,000
01:16residents located in the northern Aegean Sea.
01:19The summer holiday is coming to an end and for many locals now living abroad, this is
01:24an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and family.
01:29About 80% of the people that are from my village live in the States.
01:34I moved to the States in 2008.
01:39I run a business in Brooklyn.
01:42The only thing you see is people just leave the villages or kids that grew up in the villages
01:49once they're done with school or once they are a little bit older or they want to start
01:53their own family, they move from the villages to the big cities or even out of the country.
02:01It's making me sad.
02:02It's upsetting.
02:03But unfortunately, because there's no way of even making enough money to support yourself,
02:10let alone your family, that's why we all move out.
02:23As a result of this emigration, many villages in Chios stand deserted.
02:28Houses are abandoned.
02:29Schools and businesses remain closed.
02:31Playgrounds lie silent.
02:34The whole region now serves as a quiet testament to a bygone era when hundreds of farmers
02:39lived here.
02:41My village was nice, loved, but unfortunately, I see them leave and I feel sorry for them.
02:49Every house that is closed, my heart is closed.
02:53Thaliopi is the only permanent resident of her village.
02:57At 87 years old, she says she has no intention of leaving her birthplace.
03:03When I was born, I got married here.
03:07I had my children here.
03:09I have everything here.
03:11If there was one person here in Chios, I would go out and wish him a good morning,
03:17while I am among the foreigners.
03:21Almost every region across Greece is witnessing a similar trend.
03:25In just 10 years, from 2011 to 2021, the nation's population decreased by over 3%,
03:32falling to 10.5 million people.
03:34The mayor of Chios attributes this decline primarily to the economic crisis of the 2010s,
03:40which severely impacted peripheral areas and led to the exodus of about half a million Greeks.
03:47There is a constant decrease in the population, especially in young people,
03:53because the crisis made people leave for European countries and America,
04:02and less so in Athens and Thessaloniki, in order to find a better life.
04:08Especially for those who have undergraduate and postgraduate studies,
04:16it is a little difficult for the market to accept them.
04:20As a result, we have a decrease in the island's most active dynamic,
04:27with this being the main reason.
04:30While Greece has officially exited the financial bailout programs
04:34that were marked by severe austerity measures and social unrest,
04:37the effects of the crisis still resonate today.
04:42Unemployment is close to 11%.
04:44Youth unemployment is double that rate.
04:47A quarter of the population is at risk of poverty.
04:50And income inequality is one of the highest in the Eurozone.
04:54The country did not get destroyed, however people suffered.
04:58And many young people do not have very strong incomes that would make it easy to have a family.
05:06According to this economist, the crisis accelerated the decline in Greece's fertility rate,
05:12which has now fallen below the EU average.
05:15Combined with the brain drain and rising life expectancy,
05:18this trend poses a serious economic risk to health and pension systems.
05:23The main problem is that you are going to have a smaller number of people who are working,
05:29and now these people will have to support a large population of older people.
05:35So, in order not to overburden the young people who are working with this,
05:42you have to increase the productivity in the country,
05:45you have to bring in technology,
05:47you have to encourage the inflow of immigrants,
05:52especially in high productivity jobs,
05:55and all that you hope that are going to get you through the next 10, 15, 20 years
06:04that are going to be difficult because exactly of the population shrinking.
06:09In 2023, the Greek government established a first ministerial mandate
06:14specifically focused on addressing the demographic crisis.
06:18I would very easily call it the biggest and the largest challenge and threat that Greece is faced with.
06:29The new ministry has introduced several financial measures,
06:32including tax breaks and higher state allowances for newborns.
06:35However, the minister insists that these incentives need to be complemented
06:40with additional support for future parents,
06:42such as affordable housing, child care facilities, and other benefits.
06:47I would like them also to have the opportunity to have a good schooling system,
06:51to have a good public health care system,
06:54or to be able to have a job that can cater to the needs of the family,
06:59whatever the size of that family may be.
07:03A big part of our action plan on demography is targeted on reinforcing and intensifying our efforts
07:09in order to let the people have the freedom to stay back in their city or their village
07:17or the region where they were born.
07:19Locality will play a very important role in dealing with demography.
07:25Back in Chios, Anastasia, a restaurant owner,
07:28is acutely aware of the issues fueling the demographic collapse of local communities.
07:34Since she moved to her village 20 years ago, nearly half of the residents have left.
07:39The only children remaining are her own three kids and one other girl.
07:44For a kid in general, it's very difficult to stay in one place without having any friends.
07:50They feel lonely, they feel depressed, and they feel bored.
07:55There is no doubt that the children, when they finish school, they want to leave.
08:00There is nothing interesting for them at the village right now.
08:05So they want to study and they want to move.
08:09And the fact is that, as a parent, I think that this is the right thing to do.
08:16Emigration was the recourse some of Anastasia's customers had to turn to.
08:21Nikos and Mary, both natives of Chios, moved to Baltimore, USA, two years ago.
08:27Regardless of Greece's economic recovery or government efforts to support families,
08:32they say they can no longer envision a future in their home country.
08:37It was difficult here. We worked day and night.
08:41We couldn't get what we needed.
08:44And now we live in America and it's better than we imagined.
08:49We went to a better place and it's unbelievably better than we imagined.
08:52I love Greece, it's my country, but I will never go back.
08:56And if the conditions change, I will never go back.
09:12Very good jobs, but it's not what I studied for and what I hoped for, my future.
09:17So if you have to work like 10 to 12 hours a day and not earn as much money as you want to,
09:24how can you buy a house and how can you raise a family?
09:28You can't.
09:31Demographic decline is a growing concern across the EU,
09:34with the continent's population expected to shrink by 4% over the next 50 years.
09:40However, during the same period, Greece could lose up to 25% of its people,
09:45presenting a significant challenge for both present and future generations.