Elon Musk has shared and commented on an X post about Greece’s looming demographic crisis, a scenario predicted for the country after it has seen a rise in sudden and unexpected deaths, alongside a drop in fertility rates.
“Wow, almost twice as many people died as there were babies born in Greece,” he commented X about a news report which says that recent figures predict its population will drop sharply by up to 25 percent by 2070, far higher than the EU average of 4 percent.
In 2022, the country recorded fewer than 77,000 births, the lowest in nearly a century, while deaths reached 140,000, the news report added.
Elon Musk on demographic crisis in Greece
It is not the first time Elon Musk has commented on Greece’s demographic crisis. In April 2024 he said: “Greece is one of dozens of countries experiencing population collapse due to low birth rates.”
Elon Musk, who reportedly has 12 children from three different women, is championing the cause of more children in the family throughout the world. He believes that a declining population could pose significant risks to human civilization, suggesting that a smaller population could lead to a decline in innovation, economic growth, and overall societal progress.
Demographic collapse in Greece
Six years after Greece exited its financial bailout programs, marking the official end of a painful economic crisis, the country is now facing a new kind of emergency that could influence its social and economic structure: population decline.
In 2022, the country recorded less than 77,000 births, the lowest in almost a century, while deaths nearly doubled that number, reaching 140,000. Nothing seems to indicate that this trend will change anytime soon.
The latest population census, in 2021, showed a 3.1 percent drop in the overall population in just ten years, to less than 10.5 million people. That decade broadly corresponds to the economic crisis that the country went through, which fueled the exodus of about half a million Greeks, especially among the young and educated segments of the population.
“The demographic collapse is becoming an existential challenge for our future” warned Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
While demographic decline is a problem that concerns the West and almost all developed societies, and is connected to the modern way of life, “in Greece, however, there are also some special conditions,” Mitsotakis said.
“The truth is that today our people are among the most elderly in Europe. In the last five years, Greek women aged 20-40 have decreased by 150,000 as a result of a decline in births that actually started in the 1980s.”
He said that the population decline is not manifested equally throughout the country. “It has peaks in specific areas and this means that national strategies are not sufficient and that specific local provisions are also needed, with the overall demographic collapse literally becoming an existential bet for our future.”
Recognizing the urgency of the issue, the Greek government established its first-ever ministry specifically dedicated to tackling the demographic challenge in 2023. Led by Sofia Zacharaki, the ministry has introduced a series of measures, including tax breaks and increased state allowances for newborns, in hopes of encouraging higher birth rates.
