ABSTRACT
While population growth continued after 1974, its causes changed. As in the other poorest countries of western Europe – Ireland, Portugal and Spain – the fertility rate fell steeply from the 1970s, and from being comparatively high became comparatively low. The Greek rate fell from 2.2 in 1980 to 1.3 in 1998. The result was a continued fall in the rate of growth of the officially recorded population, which numbered 8,768,641 in 1971, 9,740,417 in 1981, 10,269,074 in 1991, and 10,498,836 in 1997. These figures failed however to capture the recent effects of mass immigration. The census of March 2001 has been more successful in this respect, and has consequently recorded a figure of 10,939,771. 1 Meanwhile, the surplus of births over deaths declined until it became a deficit from 1998. The percentage of those aged 14 or under fell from 29 in 1951 to 19 in 1991. The percentage of the population aged 65+ rose from 7 in 1951 to 14 in 1991, partly because of the declining proportion of children, partly because of increased life expectancy. Nearly everyone agreed that the low birth rate was a national problem because it threatened to weaken the country militarily, and to increase the burden of providing for the elderly.
