Elon Musk on demographics: Greece is experiencing a population collapse

The article, which is of unknown origin, entitled "Population collapse in Greece", shows our country as the first to suffer a "population collapse", which is attributed mainly to the increase in deaths but also to the low birth rate.

 "Heart failure, strokes, blood clots and rapid-onset cancers in otherwise healthy young people have caused death rates to soar in Greece, while fertility levels for young men and women have caused the birth rate to fall to the floor, recording the lowest number of births in almost a century.

The prospect of population collapse in Greece is a "ticking time bomb" and a "national threat" according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, says the article published by Elon Musk in his post.

What the 2021 census showed
According to the ELSTAT population census for 2021, the inhabitants of Greece amount to 10,482,487, showing that the total population of Greece records a decrease of 3.1% compared to the 2011 census. A decrease is observed in most regions of country, with some exceptions.

ELSTAT

In detail, the data of ELSTAT indicate that, of the 10,482,487 people, of the total population of the country, 5,356,510 are women (51.1%) and 5,125,977 are men (48.9%).

In Attica, 3,814,064 inhabitants are recorded (a decrease of 0.4% compared to 2011), while in the region of Eastern Macedonia 1,795,669 (a decrease of 4.6% compared to 2011).

In the Municipality of Athens, the census recorded 643,452 inhabitants, while in Thessaloniki 319,045.

Greece is getting older, the low birth rate persists

A particularly pessimistic scenario for the future is made up by the official data on the low birth rate in Greece, as the population is decreasing and getting older over time.

At the same time, Greece, according to Eurostat, ranks last in the European Union in the average number of students per teacher.

A further decrease of 10.3% was noted in terms of births in Greece last year and amounted to 76,541 (39,558 boys and 36,983 girls) compared to 2021, which was 85,346 (43,998 boys and 41,348 girls).

On the other hand, deaths in 2022 amounted to 140,801 (70,802 men and 69,999 women), recording a decrease of 2.2% compared to 2021, which was 143,923 (73,420 men and 70,503 women).

Deaths of infants under one year of age totaled 239, reducing the infant mortality rate (deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births) from 3.48 in 2021 to 3.12 in 2022.

The large, sharp decline in the number of births in Greece was recorded from the 1970s to the 1980s and has continued exponentially until today.

However, the data show that over the last five years the situation has stabilized, while for the first time in decades an increase in births was recorded in 2021, compared to 2020, a trend that is partly attributed to the restrictive measures of the pandemic.