Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0145/01455.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 22KB | 352 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01455}
$Pretitle{287}
$Title{Greece
Chapter 2B.   Population}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
migrants
greek
population
greece
age
greeks
migration
west
germany}
$Date{1986}
$Log{Figure 13.*0145501.scf
}
Country:     Greece
Book:        Greece, A Country Study
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 2B.   Population

     As of July 1984 the population of Greece was estimated to be 9,984,000.
According to the 1981 census, there were 9,740,417 persons. During the
1970-82 period the annual growth rate averaged 1 percent. The 1981 census
figure represented an increase of 10.7 percent since 1971 as compared with
only a 4.5-percent increase between 1961 and 1971. The 1981 increase was
somewhat misleading, however. A careful check reveals that births accounted
for only 7.3 percent of the 10.7 percent, the remainder being attributable to
a considerable number of repatriated emigrants in the late 1970s.

     Using the World Bank's (see Glossary) annual growth rate data, it was
estimated that Greece's stationary population would be 12 million in the year
2000, that is, a population with zero growth and a constant age structure. A
total fertility rate (the average births per woman surviving to childbearing
age) of 2.1 in the early 1980s suggested that the population was close to
replacement level already. The difference between births and deaths for 1982
showed an increase of only 51,147.

     Birth rates have been falling. Since World War II the number of births
per 1,000 inhabitants has dropped from the peak of 20.3 in 1951 to 14.5 in
1981. This rate was still relatively high compared with 13 per 1,000
population in Western Europe in the 1980s. By the early 1960s the drop in the
birth rate was related to the limitation of the number of children to two or
three and the desire to provide children with a better education and to avoid
straining limited housing and income. By the 1970s the drop in birth rates was
also associated with urbanization, declining infant mortality, abortions,
increased educational level of parents, emigration, and increased numbers of
women in the labor force. An early 1980s study by the University of Athens
estimated that the approximately 150,000 births annually were balanced by
150,000 abortions annually; other estimates of abortions were as high as
400,000, although the Greek Orthodox church disapproved and a 1978 law had
legalized abortions only under particular circumstances, such as rape, incest,
an abnormal fetus, or danger to the mother's health. To combat the large
numbers of illegal abortions, the Socialist government has begun a network of
family planning centers to encourage use of birth control in addition to
abortion or condoms.

     Life expectancy and infant mortality rates reflected rising living
standards. Life expectancy in Greece has risen in the last decade from 67
years for men and 70 years for women in 1960 to 72 years for men and 76 years
for women in 1982. The reduction in infant mortality (for children under one
year) per 1,000 live births has been particularly dramatic-from 50 in 1960
to 14 in 1982. Although people lived longer, crude death rates increased 19.2
percent, from seven per 1,000 in 1960 to nine per 1,000 in 1982 because of the
changing age structure.

     The age structure of the Greek population is changing. Age structure is
important because of the implications for social security, taxes, the health
care system, the work force, and the number of dependents that a wage earner
has to support. The absolute number of Greeks over age 65 increased from
514,099 in 1951 to 1,284,002 in 1981. The most productive age-group, 15 to 64
years, accounted for 63 percent of the population in 1981. Those over 65
accounted for 13 percent of the population in 1981. As the number of those
aging increased, the proportion of children (up to age 14) decreased from
32 percent in 1928 to 24 percent in 1981 (see fig. 13). Migration, by removing
the young and active from the rural areas and from Greece as a whole,
accentuated this change. Athens, for example, had a large concentration of
working-age population in 1981, when 67.1 percent of its population was in the
15 to 64 group and 10.7 percent was over 65 (as opposed to rural areas in
which only 59.8 percent was in the 15 to 64 group and 17.2 percent was over
65). The age structure of the Greek population in the early 1980s was not very
different from that of the other European Communities (EC) members.

[See Figure 13.: Population by Age and Sex, 1981 Census Source: Based on
information from Greece, National Statistical Service, Monthly Statistical
Bulletin, Athens, 29, No. 4, April 1984, 9.]

     Generally, since 1950 there has been a greater proportion of both sexes'
marrying and of marriage at younger ages. For this reason and because of
increased life expectancy and a low rate of divorce, the number of married
persons is rising. In 1981 there were 7.3 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants (a
rate higher than in France, Belgium, or the Federal Republic of Germany [West
Germany] but lower than in the United States). Most Greeks married while in
their twenties, and women married at a younger age than men (because of family
pressures to marry as soon as possible); grooms averaged 27.7 years and brides
22.7 years in 1981. In 1981 there were 6,349 divorces, but this figure dates
from before the 1982 law permitting divorce on the ground of common consent or
four years of separation; it might be expected that divorces will increase.
Earlier marriage has also been linked to earlier, although not increased,
childbearing; 65.6 percent of births in 1981 were to mothers between 20 and 29
years of age.

     The population in the early 1980s was characterized by its urban
concentration and uneven distribution. Data for 1982 showed 64 percent of the
population classified as urban-Greater Athens and Greater Thessaloniki
together accounting for about two-fifths of the approximately 10 million total
inhabitants. The Greater Athens area alone had 3,027,331 persons in 1981, or
about 30 percent of all Greeks (see table 3, Appendix A). The average
population density was 73.8 persons per square kilometer in 1981, but this
figure was meaningless since much of the terrain is mountainous and
uninhabitable. About 86 percent of the population lived on the mainland
peninsula, the balance being islanders. Over the years the number of islanders
decreased steadily, many of them seeking better economic opportunities on the
mainland and elsewhere.

     It has been reported that Greece is suffering from "run-away
urbanization" and "stagnation of the mid-size cities." In the 1960s Athens
grew by 37 percent and Thessaloniki by 46 percent. Growth slowed somewhat in
the 1970s to 19 and 27 percent, respectively. These two cities overshadowed
all others, especially if the Athens-Thessaloniki axis (the two cities and
the areas surrounding and connecting them) is considered. Athens tended to
attract migrants from southern Greece and the islands, and Thessaloniki
attracted those from the north. Other cities lagged behind; even if they
showed growth, it was not enough to catch up. Greater Patrai, the third
largest city, having 154,596 inhabitants in 1981, grew 16 and 28 percent in
the 1960s and 1970s, respectively. Greater Iraklion (110,958 in 1981) and
Greater Volos (107,407 in 1981) showed considerable growth-21 and 31 percent
for the former and 9 and 22 percent for the latter, respectively, in the 1960s
and 1970s.

     Urban areas grew at the expense of rural areas. Compared with cities,
rural areas offered low economic returns, inadequate services,
underemployment, and lower standards of living. Industrialization and growth
of the service sector offered economic opportunities to villagers who admired
urban values and standards of living; experiences in refugee camps during the
Civil War (1946-49) or abroad as labor migrants in the 1960s and 1970s
stimulated villag