Army sergeant Christos Giannakidis was planning to have a second child when Greece’s debt crisis exploded last decade, straining his finances and erasing hope of extending the family.

One son is expensive enough, he says, especially the cost of ferrying him around his remote corner of northeastern Greece where the number of children has plummeted in recent years.

Most afternoons he drives 13-year-old Nicholas 50 km (31 miles) to play soccer with the few other children scattered across the region. If Nicholas needs a paediatrician, it is even further.

“To have a family these days, you need to become a hero,” Giannakidis said on the sideline of a recent soccer practice. “To have a second child, more money must come into the house.”