No children left on Greece’s famed but emptying island

This photograph shows a chapel next to an empty road on the small island of Antikythera. --Aris MESSINIS / AFP

Antikythera–When winter draws in on Antikythera, the already meager population of the isolated Greek island shrank to almost nothing.

“There are 20 to 25 of us, no children, no bakery,” said local leader Giorgos Harhalakis, who is fighting an uphill battle to revive the small Aegean island’s fortunes.

“I’m not giving up,” he told AFP.

A worker repairs electricity cables on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many rural regions in Greece, has suffered steady depopulation.

When the last national census was held in 2021, it had just 39 inhabitants, down from 120 in 2011.

Harhalakis, 37, still remembers his first years at primary school in the 1990s, before his family, like others, was forced by “financial problems” to move to the mainland.

People have dinner at a tavern on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

At the time, the island was home to “farmers, fishermen and cattle breeders” and had around 15 communities, he said.

Today, only the port of Potamos is inhabited.

In the rocky heights of Antikythera, the dry-stone walls of terraced fields are still visible between abandoned and collapsed houses.

The island’s only connection to the outside world is by boat to Kythera and Crete.

Shuttered schools

The exodus meant that the school closed for two decades before reopening in 2018 for just three pupils — the children of Despina and Dionysis Andronikos, an Antikythera couple who returned from Athens.

A goat stands on a rock on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

“But in 2021, when my eldest daughter finished primary school, we had to leave so she could go to secondary school in Kythera,” Dionysis Andronikos said.

The school was forced to close again — one of dozens across Greece that faced a similar fate owing to lack of pupils when the school year began last month.

Greece’s fertility rate of 1.43 children per woman in 2021 is below the EU average of 1.53 children, according to EU data agency Eurostat.

A recent study by the Greek Institute for Demographic Research (IDEM) found that one in three of the country’s municipalities has fewer than 10 births a year.

The institute attributed this to Greece’s ageing population, but also to “the extremely uneven distribution of the population”.

Athens is home to over a third of the country’s 10.5 million inhabitants.

A man fishes at the harbour on the small island of Antikythera, on September 16, 2024. When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

And with over a fifth of its population aged 65 and over, Greece ranks fourth among EU member states with the highest number of elderly.

Only Italy (23.8 percent), Portugal (23.7 percent) and Finland (23.1 percent) rank higher, according to Eurostat.

To make things worse, over half a million young people left the country during the financial meltdown of the last decade.

Some efforts have been made to attract new residents to areas in need.

In the mountain village of Fourna, in central Greece, the local church invited large families to move in to prevent the closure of the local school.

In September, this initiative attracted a family with six children.

But a similar attempt, launched three years ago in Antikythera, has so far failed to bear fruit.

A couple sit outside their house on the small island of Antikythera, on September 16, 2024. – When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

Ancient computer, new hope

For Harhalakis, the island’s community leader, the main problem “is the lack of infrastructure. The state needs to offer incentives” for the construction of houses and shops, he said.

In winter, the island has only one cafe, which serves both as a tavern and a small store. It is run by a man in his eighties.

“The native population is ageing, and the future of the island is in doubt,” said Catherine Dechosal, a retired Frenchwoman who divides her time between the island and her homeland.

A woman cleans fish on the small island of Antikythera, on September 17, 2024. When winter descends on Antikythera, the already meagre population of this small island on the edge of Greece’s Aegean Sea shrinks to almost nothing. A speck of land between the islands of Kythera and Crete, Antikythera, like many other islands and rural regions in Greece, is facing steady depopulation. When a national census was held in 2021, it tallied just 39 inhabitants, compared with 120 in 2011. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

This year the government introduced a baby bonus to counter the demographic collapse.

But experts warn that increasing the number of births is not the only answer.

“Mortality rates and immigration play a decisive role and should not be downplayed,” Vyron Kotzamanis, director of IDEM, recently told Greek state news agency ANA.

Harhalakis hopes that the planned climate change observatory on the island will create jobs.

Antikythera already enjoys an outsized fame in the scientific world.

A 2nd-century astrological clock believed to be the world’s oldest computer was found by sponge divers off its coast in the early 20th century among the remains of a Roman-era shipwreck.