Europe is aging - Birth rate in Greece hits bottom

According to Eurostat, in 2023, 3.67 million babies were born in the EU, i.e. 5.4% fewer than the 3.88 million in 2022. This is the largest annual decrease recorded since 1961!

The total fertility rate in 2023 was 1.38 live births per woman in the EU, down from 1.46 in 2022. Unfortunately, Greece's position is much lower than the European average, which means that in 20-30 years the workforce will have shrunk, the social security system will be strained and, above all, the country's population will decline.

In 2023, Bulgaria had the highest total fertility rate in the EU (1.81 births per woman), followed by France (1.66) and Hungary (1.55).

In contrast, the lowest fertility rates are observed in Malta (1.06 births per woman), Spain (1.12) and Lithuania (1.18). In Greece, the fertility rate is now at 1.26, when at the beginning of the economic crisis (2008) it was at 1.50 and 2.09 in the early 1980s.

Europe and Greece are aging
During the period from 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2023, the share of people aged 80 and over increased in all EU countries, at EU level by 2.3 percentage points, from 3.7% to 6%.
The highest increase was recorded in Greece (+3.3 percentage points, from 3.8% to 7.1%) and Latvia (also +3.3 percentage points, from 2.7% to 6.0%) and the lowest in Sweden (+0.2 percentage points, from 5.3% to 5.5%).

During the same period, the proportion of people aged 65 and over increased in all EU countries. At EU level, the increase was 5.1 percentage points, from 16.2% to 21.3%.

In contrast, during the period from 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2023, the share of children and young people (under 15 years of age) decreased at EU level by 1.5 percentage points, from 16.4% to 14.9%.

A decrease was observed in all EU countries except the Czech Republic (+0.6 percentage points), Estonia and Slovenia (both +0.01 percentage points), with the largest decreases in Malta (-6.0 percentage points) and Cyprus (-4.9 percentage points). On 1 January 2023, the share of children and young adolescents was highest in Ireland (19.3%) and lowest in Italy (12.4%).

Another way of analysing the aging of society in the EU is to look at the median age of the population. The median age increased over the period 2003-2023: it was 39 years in 2003, 42.2 years in 2013 and 44.5 years in 2023 (on 1 January). This means an increase in the average age in the EU of 5.5 years over this 20-year period.

Among EU countries, the highest median age on 1 January 2023 was observed in Italy (48.4 years), followed by Portugal (47), Bulgaria (46.8) and Greece (46.5), while the lowest was recorded in Cyprus (38.4 years), Ireland (39.1), Luxembourg (39.7) and Malta (40.1). Over the period 2003-2023, the average age increased the most in Portugal (8.5 years) and Romania (8.3) and the least in Sweden (1.1) and Luxembourg (2).