The brain drain and the serious demographic crisis are causing serious negative effects on the Greek economy, which are becoming increasingly serious, experts and officials from the country warn, the online edition of the newspaper “Kathimerini“ writes, BTA reported.
Recently, during a special conference in the Greek Parliament dedicated to the demographic challenges facing Greece, the Director of Research at the Greek Statistical Agency “Dianeosis“ Ms. Fay Makandasi described in detail the negative economic effect of the brain drain from Greece – a process that, according to her, has deepened significantly during the financial crisis in Greece in the previous decade. According to the agency's data, cited by Makandasi, during the severe financial crisis, more than 420,000 young people left the country, which caused double costs for Greece - lost benefits from labor and taxes amounting to over 63 billion euros and over 8 billion euros in irretrievable lost funding in education.
Data and forecasts for the country's demographic situation also confirm the negative trends, notes “Kathimerini“. According to official statistics, the population of Greece fell from 11.2 million people in 2005 to 10.4 million in 2020. For comparison, in 2025, a total of 68,309 births and 125,873 deaths were registered in the country. Projections suggest that the country’s population could reach 9.03 million by 2050 and fall to 6.3 million by the end of the century.
In a recent speech, the speaker of the Greek parliament, Nikitas Kaklamanis, warned that if current trends continue, “future historians will describe a society and a state that are gradually committing demographic suicide.”
According to Greek researchers working on the issue, the main problems facing Greek families are the high cost of raising children and the lack of policies to support families. “Greece is one of the countries where raising a child is extremely expensive. "This can be changed with specific policies," says demography professor Byron Kodzamanis, pointing out that the introduction of such measures would hardly restore birth rates completely, but at least could increase the number of newborns by a few thousand.
Demographic studies in Greece show that Greeks want an average of 2.3 children, but have 1.3, limited mainly by the serious economic burden on families.