Late marriages and record divorces: what happens to families in Greece

Greece enters a period when marriage ceases to be a common life stage for young people and increasingly turns into a solution that put off until later.

According to ELSTAT, Vital Statistics 2024the number of marriages per 1,000 inhabitants fell from 6.5 in 1980 to 3.5 in 2024, and the divorce rate reached 42.4 for every 100 marriages, the highest since 1960. The average age at first marriage has risen to 31.4 years for women and 34.2 years for men.

These numbers cannot be explained by one reason. Families are changing under the influence of the economy, housing costs, late access to a stable income, migration, changing relationships between men and women, and general uncertainty about the future. People haven’t necessarily stopped wanting a family. Increasingly, they believe that they cannot yet afford it.

Marriage has become a late and expensive decision

The average age of first marriage in Greece has been gradually increasing for many years. This means that starting a family is increasingly being postponed until there is a stable job, housing, savings and a sense of minimal security. The problem is that for a significant portion of young people this moment is constantly being pushed back.

High rents, rising housing prices, precarious employment, expensive loans and weak income growth make the decision to get married and have a child a financial project rather than just a personal choice. A young couple must first decide where to live, how to pay rent, how to combine work with children and what will happen if one income disappears for even a few months. Romance, as usual, clashes with accounting and loses to it on points.

The state recognizes the housing problem. As part of the program “My House II” young people and couples from 25 to 39 years old can receive a preferential or partially interest-free loan for the purchase of a first home. However, the very need for such a program shows the scale of the problem: for many families, the regular housing market has become unaffordable without special support.

There are more divorces

In 2024, for every 100 marriages in Greece, there would be 42.4 divorces. For comparison, in 2023 this figure was 37.5, and in 2022 33.4. The rise in divorce does not mean that almost half of all marriages will necessarily end in breakup. This is an indicator of the ratio of registered divorces and marriages in a particular year. But the dynamics still show that the institution of family is becoming less stable and less predictable. ELSTAT: divorce statistics

Divorces are influenced not only by personal relationships. Financial pressure, debt, homelessness, multiple jobs, forced emigration and constant anxiety about income make even stable relationships more vulnerable. People can love each other, but cannot withstand a regime in which family life turns into continuous crisis management.

Demographics are not about marriage

A drop in the number of marriages in itself does not automatically mean a drop in the birth rate, since some children are born outside of official marriage. But in Greece this share remains one of the lowest in the world. EU: In 2023, only 9.7% of children were born out of wedlock, while the EU average was 41.1%. Eurostat: Demography of Europe 2025

Therefore, for Greece, the weakening of the marriage rate is indeed closely related to the demographic issue. When people marry later and start living separately later, the window for having a first and especially a second child becomes narrower. ELSTAT reports that 65,594 births were registered in the country in 2025, which is 4.2% less than the year before. ELSTAT: births in 2025

Family policy exists, but it is not enough

It cannot be said that the state is not taking measures at all. In recent years, payments at the birth of a child have been increased, tax breaks have been expanded for families with children, maternity compensation has been extended for private sector workers, VAT on certain goods for infants has been reduced, and housing programs have received additional funding. Greece’s fiscal policy plan

But the problem is different: one-time benefits are not a substitute for a sustainable environment. A young family needs more than just a few thousand euros after the birth of a child. What you need is affordable rent or a mortgage, day care, a predictable work schedule, a normal income, medical care, protection from sudden dismissal, and confidence that a second child will not turn the family into a candidate for debt restructuring.

Not ideology, but living conditions

In public debates, the demographic crisis is often explained by the “decline of traditional values,” television, social networks, cultural trends or political ideologies. Such factors may influence ideas about family, but they do not explain the main thing: why people who want to live together and have children are increasingly postponing this decision.

Family decisions almost always depend on a sense of the future. If a person does not know whether he will be able to pay for housing in a year, keep his job, pay off tax debts, find a place in kindergarten and not move back to his parents after the birth of a child, then calls to “create a traditional family” change little.

The state cannot order people to love each other, get married, or have children. But it can create conditions under which the family ceases to be a risk. And this is where the government’s responsibility lies: not in regulating personal life, but in whether the country is able to make a family future economically possible.

The problem in Greece is not that young people have allegedly abandoned family as an idea. The problem is that for too many people, family life has become expensive, late and risky. As long as housing, income, jobs and taxes work against young couples, no amount of loud rhetoric about demographics can replace real family support policies.

Sources: ELSTAT, Eurostat, ELSTAT: births, My Home II.

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