Schools Close,island Life Is Under Threat as Greece Reckons with Low Birth Rates

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series "Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World" explores the causes and implications of this trend.

https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-94348/population-shift

>For those who stay, health care services can be limited. Vourgos said he and his wife spent thousands of euros to travel for medical care for each of her two pregnancies.

>The island's small public hospital has no neonatal ICU services, so many pregnant women make that choice

I've seen this in communities back home / in the area as well. I sometimes think how nice it would be to move back home, but there's far fewer services (recreation, healthcare, even quality groceries) and many are shrinking.

Even things like housing, is on the surface cheaper in a technical sense ... if you want a crappy old house for "cheap"-ish, that needs work. And then good luck finding many options to fix up or build that new house.

It also doesn't help that the locals back home elect politicians who are determined to enact policies that accelerate these issues like cutting healthcare, transportation, and so on. It's wild to see them complain about the big cities, and then elect people who cut all support for their own people, communities, and had the development advantages to the big city in spades.