Greece, Demographic Changes, and Challenges

The demographic profile of Greece at the end of the 2010s differs significantly from that of the post-WWII period. The population has increased by over three million, and Greece’s residents are exceptionally unequally distributed in space, live longer, are aging, have fewer children and contract fewer marriages, they divorce easily, the structure of households and families has changed radically, and, at the same time, the ‘nationally homogeneous’ population of the 1950s now includes about 900,000 foreigners. Demographic developments in the next decades will accelerate aging, leading to a rapid decline in the population. The consequences of both the aforementioned changes and those expected are multiple and of great concern. This article discusses, in short, the most significant post-war demographic changes as well as those expected to occur in the next two decades.