The losing battle against Greece's tumbling birthrate

A man walks pasts schoolchildren from nearby villages waiting to be escorted to the the primary school, which serves 17 villages, in the village of Dikaia, Greece, March 29, 2024. The population of Orestiada, a crop-growing area bordering Turkey and Bulgaria, shrank 16% between 2011 and 2021, census data show; and the village of Ormenio used to be full of children, but now two thirds of the 300 residents are over 70. "We used to gather at weddings, at baptisms. Now we meet at funerals," said Chrysoula Ioannidou, 61. "There are very few births." REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki/ File Photo

ORMENIO, Greece (Reuters) - Army sergeant Christos Giannakidis was planning to have a second child when Greece's debt crisis exploded last decade, straining his finances and erasing hope of extending the family.

One son is expensive enough, he says, especially the cost of ferrying him around his remote corner of northeastern Greece where the number of children has plummeted in recent years.