Greece Closes 75 Schools as Island Depopulation Accelerates

Greek authorities shuttered 75 schools and suspended classes at more than 400 others this academic year, a sweeping contraction driven by record-low birth rates that is dismantling public infrastructure in the country’s most remote communities first.

The closures follow a collapse in European fertility. The European Union recorded 3.55 million births in 2024, roughly half the bloc’s 1964 peak. The EU-wide fertility rate fell to a historic low of 1.34 children per woman, far below the 2.1 replacement threshold. Greece registered among the lowest figures on the continent, dropping below 1.25.

Remote islands function as demographic tripwires. When local schools disappear, working-age families follow, triggering an irreversible cycle of abandonment. Kalamos, a small Greek island near Ithaca, illustrates the terminal phase of that cycle. Its year-round population has fallen to 80 from a community that supported 40 students in local schools and public daycare just a decade ago. By next fall, after its final two sixth graders transfer to mainland middle schools, the island’s primary school will close permanently. Its kindergarten was locked three years ago.

Seven teenagers now commute daily across rough seas to attend high school on the mainland, missing classes entirely when wind conditions make ferry crossings unsafe. Chryssa Ntalaka, who has spent a decade teaching on Kalamos during a 20-year career in remote education, operates a classroom built for dozens with only two desks occupied. Town officials and educators have publicly appealed for young families to relocate to the island — an influx of just two households would sustain the school — but no commitments have materialized.

“Closing schools leads to young people not staying and to them leaving,” said Byron Kotzamanis, co-founder of the Institute of Demographic Research in Athens. “Leaving means fewer and fewer people — fewer and fewer births. It means depopulation and dead settlements that will become nursing homes.”

Aris Alexopoulos, head of the OECD’s Crete Center on Population Dynamics, projects Greece’s total population will shrink from 10.5 million to as few as 8 million by 2050. Europe hosts 16 of the world’s 20 oldest nations, according to the World Population Review, making the Greek trajectory a continental blueprint rather than an isolated crisis.

Governments across the Mediterranean and the Pacific are deploying divergent strategies to arrest the decline, with mixed results. Croatia invested 4.6 billion euros ($5.1 billion) over the past decade into its island territories, funding 20 new or expanded kindergartens, renovated primary schools, and sports facilities. The Croatian parliament passed an Islands Act in January to formalize support. Despite the capital injection, population loss on small Croatian islands continues at a pace comparable to the mainland.

Italy relies on regulatory exemptions. Italian law typically requires a minimum of 15 pupils to operate an elementary school, but authorities waive the mandate for remote islands where closures guarantee immediate depopulation. Under that exception, a school on the volcanic island of Stromboli reopened last month after a 20-year hiatus with a single enrolled student, a 6-year-old attending classes held inside the village church in Ginostra.

Japan confronts a steeper demographic cliff. The population across more than 250 remote Japanese islands covered by a government support program dropped 19% in the decade through 2023, nearly double the national decline rate. Those islands housed almost 1 million residents in 1955; by 2020, the figure had fallen to 340,000. The exodus created critical labor shortages for ferry operators and essential transport services, compounding economic isolation. Tokyo classifies maintaining island populations as a national security priority, offering subsidies to recruit workers into fishing and tourism. Some relocation programs have successfully imported students: on the Oki Islands, 74 of 132 fisheries high school students arrived through family resettlement initiatives.

The European Commission announced in June it would draft a comprehensive strategy for islands targeting shrinking populations. Over the previous five years, the EU allocated 146 million euros ($164 million) to modernize schools across four Greek island clusters specifically to counter demographic decline.

Themis Christophidou, director-general for regional and urban policy at the European Commission, framed the closures as a policy failure rather than an inevitability. “Mobility is one of Europe’s strengths, but people should leave by choice, never because of neglect or missing investment,” she stated. “That starts with quality public services, with education at their heart.”

Kalamos’ remaining teenagers anticipate joining the migration. Antonis Aivaliotis, a high school senior commuting daily by ferry, confirmed he intends to leave the island permanently after graduation, citing a total absence of local economic development despite his desire to stay.

The European Commission’s island strategy framework remains in its initial drafting phase as of October 2026, with member states currently submitting data on service deficits in territories housing portions of the EU’s 17 million island residents.