In recent years, at least one in five Greek women decides to not get married because of the economic crisis and unemployment. At the same time, those getting married postpone the decision of having children for the same reasons.

These are the findings of survey that will be presented at the Congress about Demographics in Greece organized by the Democritus University of Thrace in Komotini on Friday.

The percentage of non-married women reaches almost 20%, and they are across the country, Konstantinos Zafiris, assistant professor of Demography at Democritus and president of the organizing committee told daily Ethnos.

With regards to childbirths, recorded data show a negative record in the country. Nowadays, fertility synchronization per woman has decreased to 1.3 children, when it was 2 to 2.1 children per woman in the 1980s.

Zafiris points out that that this phenomenon appears for the first time in Greece since the institution of marriage and family is deeply rooted in the Greek Orthodox tradition, the social life but also to the moral entity of Greeks.

The research also found that women in Greece live longer than men. Their life expectancy is 84 years, while for men is 79.

According to a recent report by Greek statistics Authority ELSTAT covering January-December 2016 births increased at 1.1% in 2016 when compared to 2015. At the same time, deaths decreased at 2% in 2016 when compared to 2015.

Death of children below one year old increased in 2016 at 4.2%. The rate was 4% in 2015. (Rate measurement is deaths compared to 1,000 newborns)

The rate of Religious and civil marriages decreased at 7,5% in 2016. However, there is an increase of 45.5% in “civil agreements” that were introduced last year.

(The article was initially published inadvertently without mentioning the source which is keeptalkinggreece.com. Apologies…)