Greece taking steps to stop population decline, PM says
Greece’s rapidly aging population and declining birth rate pose significant threats to country’s ability to grow, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned Wednesday, as he announced the creation of a national council tasked with reversing the negative demographic trends.
“We are not dealing with a threat to our national identity, but with a direct challenge to the country’s ability to produce wealth on an individual and collective level, thereby sustaining the social fabric that binds people together,” Mitsotakis told a conference in Athens.
“The danger is immediate and significant,” he said.
Greece’s population is expected to decline over the next 20 years while the ten-year economic crisis accentuated the problem, mainly due to the emigration of 450,000 working age people.
In the same event, the conservative prime minister announced plans to extend the operating hours of kindergartens and primary schools in the country to 6 p.m.
