🇬🇷 Greece

Greece's 46.5 median age, sub-replacement fertility and shrinking population make it one of the EU's demographic laggards; the 37.4% old-age dependency ratio understates total dependency because it excludes children and the inactive. Population fell from roughly 10.8 million in 2021 to 10.4 million in 2024, implying net emigration of approximately 250,000-300,000 after allowing for natural decrease, with losses concentrated among mobile young adults. The 17.3% youth unemployment rate is therefore a survivor metric: the most employable young have already exited, shrinking measured unemployment and the domestic tax base precisely as AI erodes entry-level service work.

Athens has a nominal national AI strategy, ambitions to equip schools with AI tools and access to EU recovery funding for digitalisation. Implementation remains dominated by pilots, procurement and headline targets, while SME retraining, worker transition and a credible plan for labour displacement are conspicuously thin; the 2.1% growth bounce does not repair that vacuum.