Significant changes have occurred in fertility rates over the past two decades, according to Professor of Demography and Director of the Institute for Demographic Research and Studies (IDEM), based on the Institute’s analyses.

More specifically, births in our country have plummeted (an average of 117,600 per year in 2008–2009 and 65,000 in 2025–26, a 44% decrease), while the average age at which people have children continues to rise steadily (30.2 and 30.3 in 2008 and 2009, 32.2 and 32.3 years in 2025 and 2026). This decline in births, which began in the early 1980s and has continued—with the exception of the 2003–09 period, when a slight increase was recorded—to the present day, is mainly due to the decline in fertility among women born after 1960, that is, the number of children they had (2.0 for those born in the late 1950s, less than 1.5 for those born around 1985). Their recent decline was also driven by the decrease in the number of women of reproductive age, as the number of women aged 25–44 fell by 480,000 (-28%) between 2008–09 and 2025–26. This significant decline in this age group, according to the researcher, is due to the fact that fewer and fewer people are reaching reproductive age as a result of the post-1980 decline in births and, secondarily, due to emigration, as over the past fifteen years not only has a portion of the smaller cohort of people born in Greece 25 to 45 years ago left the country, but also a large number ofof the same age groups who had settled here after 1990.

At the same time, over the past two decades, the values of the total fertility rate have fallen from 1,500 children per 1,000 women in 2008–2009 to 1,240 children per 1,000 women in 2025–2026, the proportion of births outside marriage has more than doubled (from 7.4 thousand to 17.8, respectively), 10 out of 100 children (estimate) are now conceived through assisted reproductive technology, and 63 out of 100 are born via cesarean section, while during the same period, a significant proportion of births (one in seven) were to foreign mothers.

However, significant changes have also occurred in the distribution of births by maternal age. Thus, 30% of births today are to mothers under the age of 30, whereas that percentage stood at 43% in 2008–09 (and at 78% in 1980). Conversely, the percentage of births to women aged 40 and older has nearly more than tripled (4.5% in 2008–09 and 11.2% —estimate—in 2025–26) and has increased sixfold compared to 1980, when it stood at 1.8%. It is no coincidence that births between 2008–09 and 2025–26 increased only among women aged 40–44 and 45–49, while they declined in all other age groups.

The changes observed over the last two decades in our country are due, on the one hand, Mr. Kotzamanis emphasizes, to the rapid decline in fertility (i.e., the number of children born to generations born after 1960) combined with the continuous upward shift in the average age at which couples have children—a shift that was “facilitated” by the revolutionary advances in assisted reproduction, which an increasing number of couples are turning to as they decide to have children at an ever-later age.

Postwar changes in couples’ reproductive behaviors—reflected in a multitude of indicators—are, of course, not limited to our country alone, but to a greater or lesser extent, in all developed European countries. In all these countries, he continues, although at varying rates, common trends are observed that have influenced these behaviors. In particular, we see everywhere—among other things: a rise in individualism and the emergence of a desire for self-fulfillment, rapid urbanization and a decline in the rural population, the mass entry of women into the labor market, an increase in the length of time younger generations—especially women—spend in the educational system, occasional difficulties in securing stable employment and accessing housing, obstacles—particularly for women—to successfully balancing family life and a professional career, gender discrimination, rising costs of raising a child, and the widespread use of modern and effective methods of contraception. The aforementioned factors were accompanied by a shift away from the traditional family model toward that of two working parents, whether married or cohabiting (resulting in an increase in births outside of marriage)—a model that is particularly fragile, hence the rapid rise in single-parent households.

Greece, according to the same data, stands out from many other European countries, as it experienced the largest percentage decline in births among all EU-27 countries —excluding the former socialist countries—both between 1980 and 2008–09 and between 2008–09 and 2025–26 (-20% and -45%, respectively). It is also included in that small group of countries that experienced, on the one hand, the largest percentage decline in the number of children among women born in the early and those born thirty years later (early ’80s), and, on the other hand, the fastest increase in the average age at first birth, as this age rose by more than 5 years between women born in 1952 and those born in 1982.

Mr. Kotzamanis concluded by emphasizing: “The changes in Greece—which differ from those in other countries—regarding both generational fertility (a decrease in the number of children born per woman) and the age at which women have children (an increase) led to a renewed collapse in the birth rate after 2008–2009, a decline that was accelerated by the mass emigration after 2010, which further exacerbated the inevitable decline in the number of women of reproductive age. Furthermore, the absence in our country of a supportive environment for younger generations—those of family-forming age after 2005 (that is, those born after 1980)—combined with, among other factors, rising unemployment, difficulties in securing stable employment, the decline in real incomes, and—after 2020—the housing crisis—particularly in large urban centers where these generations are mainly concentrated— have further intensified the sense of insecurity about the future, inevitably affecting both the decision to start a family and the ability to have the desired number of children.”

Source: APE-MPE