This school year (2025–2026) Greece will see about 44,000 fewer children entering first grade than in 2010—71,181 compared with 115,000—a negative record in the country’s modern history, according to Proto Thema.
Official data show that in 2019, the year these children were born, there were 83,756 births. That means 12,575 children are “missing” from the classroom count, suggesting factors such as emigration or non-enrollment. Of this year’s pupils, roughly nine out of ten are Greek-born, with the rest of foreign origin. Hypothetically, the 44,000 absent children would fill 1,760 classrooms of 25 pupils each.
The trend is expected to worsen: based on 2024’s 69,675 births, first grade in 2030–2031 will count only about 60,000 pupils.
A similar decline is evident in secondary education, where enrollment in the first year of middle school has been falling annually—by as much as 20% over the past decade.
The broader demographic picture is stark. In 2024, Greece recorded 69,675 births and 128,259 deaths—one newborn for every 1.8 deaths. By contrast, in 2010 there were 114,766 births and 109,084 deaths, the last year the country’s “natural balance” of births over deaths was positive.
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