Peace Without Poison

This conundrum is clearly reflected in the economic record, which shows that per capita GDPbegan increasing as soon as Greece’s fertility began decreasing in the early 1960s, that the GDPincreased until the population plateaued at 10 million during the 1980s and 1990s when the GDPalso stagnated, that the GDP rose again during the first decade of the 21 st century due to an influxof EU funds and heavy immigration that grew the population by one million or 10%, and that theGDP began decreasing as soon as the population began decreasing due to low fertility in 2010.Greece’s population control program was most intense during the presidency of KonstantinosKaramanlis (first term 1980-1985, second term 1990-1995) and the presidency of KonstantinosStephanopoulos (1995-2005).Greece’s contraceptive prevalence rate is low at 46% and clearly not a factor in the country’ssub-replacement level fertility. The historical record also shows that abortion is not a factorsince Greece’s abortion rate has been stable at c. 12% since 1990. Prior to 1990 it was even lessof a factor since it never exceeded 5%.Greece is in the fifth and last stage of the demographic transition.303 | P a g e