Greece, Italy and Germany are Europe’s birthrate laggards
Greece had the equal third-lowest birthrate in the European Union last year, according to figures published on Wednesday by Eurostat.
Greece, along with Italy, had a crude birthrate of 9 per 1,000 inhabitants when the EU average was 10.4 per 1,000.
The highest birthrate was in Ireland, where 15.7 children were born for every 1,000 people, while the lowest was Germany, with 8.4 per 1,000.
The low birthrate contributed to Greece’s population declining by 5.5 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Greece was one of 11 EU member states that saw its population decrease last year and had the fifth-largest decrease in the 27-nation block.