According to an announcement released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) depicting the evolution of demographic indicators in Greece, the natural population change (i.e., the change attributed only to the difference between the number of live births and deaths, without taking into consideration migration) recorded a downward trend.
More specifically, a natural population decrease of 17,660 persons was observed
The following data which were included in ELSTAT’s report were derived from Civil Registry Offices of all the Municipalities, which register all the births, deaths, marriages and registered partnerships that occur in Greece.
I. Births
In 2013, the number of births in Greece amounted to 94,134 (48,430 males and 45,704 females), recording a 6.21% decrease in comparison with 2012, when the number of births was 100,371 (51,654 males and 48,717 females). The number of births does not include stillbirths, which in 2013 amounted to 376, decreasing by 15.7% in comparison with 446 stillbirths in 2012.
As regards mother’s citizenship, in 2013, 80,940 births by Greek mothers were recorded (85.98%) and 13,194 by foreigners (14.02%). The corresponding data recorded in 2012 were 84,851 births by Greek mothers (84.54%) and 15,520 by foreigners (15.46%) respectively.
In 2013, the median age of mother at childbirth was 31.85 years, recording a slight increase in comparison with 2012, when the median age of mother at birth was 31.57 years. Births outside marriage, in absolute numbers, dropped from 7,640 (7.6% of the total births) in 2012 down to 6,337 (6.7% of the total births) in 2013.
II. Deaths
In 2013, the number of deaths recorded a decrease of 4.15% amounting to 111,794, (57,627 males and 54,167 females) in comparison with 116,670 (60,37 males and 56,533 females) in 2012.The median age at death in 2013 was 75.25 years for men and 80.85 years for women, recording, in comparison with 2012 (74.79 years for men and 80.64 for women), an upward trend for both sexes.
The infant mortality rate (deaths of infants under one year of age during the reference year, per 1,000 live births) rose from 2.91 in 2012 to 3.69 in 2013.
The neonatal mortality rate (deaths of infants under 28 days of age during the reference year per 1.000 live births) rose from 1.89 in 2012 to 2.63 in 2013.
The perinatal mortality rate (deaths of infants less than 7 days of age plus stillbirths during the reference year per 1000 total births) went from 5.64 in 2012 up to 5.79 in 2013.
More analytically, out of 347 infant deaths, 76 infants were younger than 1 day old and 248 were less than 1 month.
III. Marriages – Registered Partnerships
The number of marriages amounted to 51,256 in 2013, in comparison with 49,710 in 2012, thus recording an increase of 3.11%. Civil marriages were almost equal to religious ones. More specifically, out of 51,256 marriages, 25,624 were religious and 25,632 were civil ones.
The median age of women at first marriage was 29.9 years in 2013 as compared to 29.6 years in 2012.
The median age of men at first marriage was 32.7 years in 2013 while in 2012 it was 32.5 years.
It should be noted that out of 51,256 marriages, women who had their first marriage were 45,300, while men were 44,807.
Finally, in 2013 the number of registered partnerships increased by 85.03% in comparison with 2012. During the period from 2009 (when the legislation on registered partnerships first came into force) to 2013, the number of registered partnerships was 161, 180, 185, 314 and 581 respectively, i.e. 1,421 registered partnerships were recorded in entire Greece.
