Greece
Name
| Official name | Hellenic Republic — Ellinikí Dimokratía (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία) |
|---|---|
| Former names | The First Hellenic Republic (1822–1832); the Kingdom of Greece (1832–1924, 1935–1973); the Second Republic (1924–1935); the Third Republic since 1974 |
| Demonym | Greek; Hellene |
| Meaning of the name | Hellas, from the mythical Hellen, father of the Greek tribes; "Greece" from the Latin Graecia, the land of the Graeci |
| Motto | "Eleftheria i thanatos" — freedom or death; the cry of 1821 |
Quick facts
| Capital | Athens — Athína — the capital since 1834; about 3.1 million in the urban area, 3.6 million in Attica |
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| Largest cities | Athens; Thessaloniki, about 1 million; Patras; Heraklion; Larissa; Volos; Ioannina; Chania; Rhodes |
| Official language | Greek — the language of Homer in its modern form, with its own alphabet of 24 letters since the 8th century BC; English widely spoken |
| Currency | Euro — EUR, €; since 1 January 2001, replacing the drachma at 340.750 |
| Time zone | Eastern European Time, UTC+2; summer time UTC+3 |
| Calling code | +30 |
| Internet domains | .gr and .ελ |
| ISO 3166 codes | GR · GRC · 300 |
| Vehicle registration code | GR |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F |
| Independence | Declared 25 March 1821, from the Ottoman Empire — the national day; recognized by the London Protocol of 3 February 1830 |
| National days | 25 March, Independence Day, with the Annunciation; 28 October, Oxi Day, for the "No" to Mussolini in 1940; 17 November, the Polytechnic uprising of 1973; Easter, the greatest feast; 15 August, the Dormition |
| Constitution | 11 June 1975 — the Constitution of the Third Hellenic Republic; revised 1986, 2001, 2008 and 2019 |
| Population | 10,482,487 at the census of 2021; about 10.4 million (ELSTAT, 2025 est.); under 10 million by the UN's estimate — falling since 2011 |
| Area | 131,957 km² (50,949 sq mi) — land 130,647 km², water 1,310 km²; about a fifth of it islands |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Nine horizontal stripes of blue and white — the syllables of "Eleftheria i thanatos," by the tradition — with a white cross on a blue canton for the Orthodox faith; the naval flag of the revolution of 1822, the sole national flag since 22 December 1978.Flag of Greece |
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| Coat of arms | A white cross on a blue shield within two laurel branches — adopted 7 June 1975 in place of the royal arms |
| National anthem | "Hymn to Liberty" — Ýmnos eis tin Eleftherían — the poem of 158 stanzas by Dionysios Solomos, 1823, set by Nikolaos Mantzaros; the anthem since 1865, of which the first two stanzas are sung; the longest anthem in the world; shared with Cyprus |
| National motto | "Eleftheria i thanatos" |
| National colors | Blue and white |
| National animal | The dolphin — of the Minoans and the myths; the phoenix of the first republic; widely cited, none designated |
| National bird | The little owl — the owl of Athena, on the drachma and the euro coin; widely cited |
| National flower | The violet, or the acanthus of the Corinthian column; the olive branch above all — widely cited |
| National tree | The olive — the gift of Athena to Athens; the oldest trees of Crete some 3,000 years old |
| National dish | Moussaka; souvlaki and gyros; the Greek salad, horiatiki; the feta, protected in the EU; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, arms and anthem are fixed by law; the animal, bird, flower, tree and dishes are of the tradition, none designated |
Geography
| Location | The southern tip of the Balkans — the mainland and the Peloponnese between the Ionian and the Aegean, with the islands to Crete and to Rhodes off the Turkish coast; Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey to the north and east |
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| Land borders | 1,110 km (690 mi) with four countries |
| Border with Bulgaria | 472 km (293 mi) |
| Border with North Macedonia | 234 km (145 mi) — the name dispute settled by the Prespa agreement of 2018 |
| Border with Albania | 212 km (132 mi) |
| Border with Turkey | 192 km (119 mi) — the Evros River, and the sea border of the Aegean, disputed |
| Coastline | 13,676 km (8,498 mi) — the longest in the Mediterranean and among the ten longest in the world |
| Islands | Some 6,000, 227 inhabited — Crete, 8,336 km², the largest; Euboea; Lesbos; Rhodes; Chios; Corfu; the Cyclades with Santorini, Mykonos and Naxos; the Dodecanese; the Ionian; the Sporades; the Saronic; the Northern Aegean |
| Highest point | Mount Olympus, 2,917 m (9,570 ft), at Mytikas |
| Lowest point | The Mediterranean Sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 498 m (1,634 ft) |
| Major rivers | The Aliakmon, 297 km, the longest wholly Greek; the Acheloos; the Pineios of Thessaly; the Evros, the Nestos and the Strymon from the north; the Alfeios past Olympia |
| Lakes | Trichonida, the largest, in Aetolia; the Prespa lakes shared with Albania and North Macedonia; Volvi; Vegoritida; the Kerkini reservoir |
| Terrain | Four-fifths mountains — the Pindus spine, Olympus, the Parnassus, the Taygetus of the Peloponnese, the White Mountains and Ida of Crete; the plains of Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace; the gorges of Samaria and Vikos, the latter among the deepest on earth; the Meteora rocks |
| Climate | Mediterranean — hot dry summers, mild wet winters; alpine in the mountains; the meltemi wind of the Aegean summer |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes — the most seismic country in Europe, Athens 1999, Kefalonia 1953 and 2014, Samos 2020; wildfires — Mati 2018 with 104 dead, Evros 2023 the largest ever recorded in the EU, the fires of every summer since; the floods of Storm Daniel in Thessaly, 2023; the volcano of Santorini and its swarm of 2025 |
| Natural resources | Lignite, being phased out; bauxite, the largest in the EU; nickel, magnesite, marble — the Pentelic and Parian of the temples; oil at Prinos; the sun and the wind; the sea |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 63%; forest about 30% |
| National parks | Olympus, the first, 1938; Parnassus; Samaria on Crete; Vikos–Aoös; Prespa; Zakynthos, the marine park of the loggerhead turtles; the Northern Pindus; Mount Athos, the monastic republic |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 19 — the Temple of Apollo at Bassae (1986); the Acropolis, Delphi and Epidaurus (1987–88); Mount Athos and the Meteora (1988); Thessaloniki's churches, Mystras, Olympia and Delos; the monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni; Samos; Aigai, the Macedonian tombs of Vergina; Rhodes; Patmos; Corfu; Philippi; Zagori (2023) |
| Administrative divisions | 13 regions — Attica, Central Macedonia, Crete and the rest — of 74 regional units, and the autonomous monastic state of Mount Athos; 332 municipalities since the Kallikratis reform of 2011 |
People
| Population | 10,482,487 (census of 2021); about 10.4 million (ELSTAT, 2025) |
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| Population density | About 80 per km² (207 per sq mi) — a third in Attica |
| Population growth | Negative — about −0.4% a year; deaths above births since 2011, the emigration of some 500,000 in the crisis |
| Median age | About 46 years — among the oldest populations in the world |
| Life expectancy | About 81 years |
| Fertility rate | About 1.3 births per woman — the lowest in the country's history |
| Urban population | About 81% |
| Adult literacy | About 98% |
| Ethnic groups | Greek about 91%; Albanian about 4%, the largest migrant community; Bulgarian, Romanian, Pakistani, Georgian, Ukrainian; the Muslim minority of Thrace, about 100,000, under the Treaty of Lausanne; the Roma; the Aromanians, Arvanites and Slavophones of the old villages |
| Languages | Greek by about 99% — with the dialects of Crete, Cyprus and the Pontus; Turkish and Pomak in Thrace; Albanian among the migrants; English by about half |
| Religion | Greek Orthodox about 90% — the "prevailing religion" under the Constitution, the Church of Greece autocephalous since 1850; Muslim about 2%; Catholic about 1%; no religion rising among the young |
| Human Development Index | 0.908 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 33rd of 193 |
| The diaspora | About 5 million of Greek descent abroad — in the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada and Britain; Melbourne among the largest Greek cities; the 400,000 who left in the crisis of the 2010s |
| Sport | Football — the Euro of 2004, the greatest upset in the tournament's history; basketball — the European titles of 1987 and 2005, Giannis Antetokounmpo; the Athens Olympics of 1896 and 2004; Stefanos Tsitsipas; Panathinaikos and Olympiacos |
| Migration | The gate of Europe — a million crossed the Aegean in 2015–16; the camps of Lesbos, Samos and Chios; the pushback allegations; about 60,000 arrivals in 2024 by the sea and the Crete route of 2025 |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic under the Constitution of 1975 — the president a ceremonial head of state elected by parliament for five years; the prime minister head of government |
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| Prime Minister | Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy), since 26 June 2023 — and 8 July 2019 to 25 May 2023; leader of New Democracy since 2016; the son of Konstantinos Mitsotakis, prime minister 1990–93; born 4 March 1968 in Athens, Harvard and Stanford; his second cabinet sworn in 27 June 2023 with Kostis Hatzidakis as deputy |
| President | Konstantinos Tasoulas (New Democracy), since 13 March 2025 — the ninth of the Third Republic; speaker of parliament 2019–2025, elected by the parliament on 25 January 2025 with 160 votes; born 17 July 1959 at Ioannina; succeeded Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the first woman president, 2020–2025 |
| The 2023 elections | Two — 21 May 2023 under proportional rules, New Democracy 40.8% and no majority; 25 June 2023 under the bonus system, New Democracy 40.6% and 158 of 300 seats, Syriza 17.8% and 47, PASOK 11.8% and 32, the Communists 7.7% and 21, the Spartans, Greek Solution and Niki the rest; turnout 53%, the lowest ever |
| Parliament | The Hellenic Parliament — 300 members elected for four years, 285 in constituencies and 15 from a national list, with a bonus of up to 50 seats for the first party; Nikitas Kaklamanis the speaker since January 2025; PASOK under Nikos Androulakis the official opposition since November 2024, Syriza split into pieces |
| The next election | Due in the spring of 2027, by 30 June 2027 — the prime minister ruling out a snap vote and seeking a third majority |
| Tempi and the protests | The head-on collision of a passenger and a freight train at Tempi on 28 February 2023 — 57 dead, most of them students — the worst rail disaster in the country's history; the anniversaries of 2025 and 2026 bringing the largest demonstrations since the crisis years, against the government's handling and the delays of the inquiry; the trial of 2026 |
| The scandals | The wiretapping of politicians and journalists with the Predator spyware, revealed 2022; the OPEKEPE farm-subsidy fraud of 2025 that cost two ministers their posts |
| Legal system | Civil law; the Council of State, the Court of Cassation — the Areios Pagos — and the Court of Audit; no constitutional court |
| Regions | 13 with elected governors since 2011; Mount Athos self-governed by its twenty monasteries under a 1,000-year rule that admits no women |
| Turkey | The Aegean disputes over the continental shelf, airspace and the islets; the near-wars of 1974, 1987 and 1996; the maritime zones and the Turkish "Blue Homeland" claim; the thaw of 2023–25 with the Athens declaration; Cyprus the deeper wound |
| European Union | Member since 1 January 1981, the tenth; the eurozone since 2001; Schengen since 2000; the three bailouts of 2010, 2012 and 2015, about €289 billion, the largest in history, exited 20 August 2018; the EU Council presidency five times, the last in 2014 |
| NATO | Member since 18 February 1952, with Turkey; the Souda Bay base on Crete |
| United Nations | A founding member, 25 October 1945; a Security Council seat in 2025–26 |
| Other memberships | The OECD (1961), the Council of Europe (1949), the OSCE, the WTO, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$260 billion (2025, IMF) — still below the peak of 2008 in real terms |
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| GDP per capita | About US$25,000 (2025) |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$42,000 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 2.2% a year (2024–25) — above the eurozone; unemployment down from 28% in 2013 to about 8%; investment grade restored in 2023 for the first time since 2010 |
| Economy by sector | Services about 80%, industry about 15%, agriculture about 4% |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) |
| Shipping | The largest merchant fleet in the world by tonnage — about a fifth of the world's, some 5,000 ships owned by Greeks, most under foreign flags; Piraeus the largest passenger port in Europe, run by China's COSCO since 2016 |
| Tourism | A record of about 36 million visitors in 2024 and more in 2025 — Germans, Britons, Americans, French, Italians; Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Rhodes, Corfu and the Acropolis; about a quarter of GDP with its spending |
| Agriculture | Olive oil — the third producer in the world; the feta and the yogurt; cotton, the largest in the EU; peaches, oranges, tobacco; the wines of Santorini and Nemea |
| The crisis | The debt of 2009 revealed at 127% of GDP and a deficit of 15%; the bailouts of 2010–15, the austerity, the loss of a quarter of GDP, the exodus of 400,000; the referendum of 5 July 2015 and the capital controls; the restructuring of 2012, the largest ever, €200 billion; the exit of 2018; public debt about 150% of GDP in 2025, the highest in the EU, and falling |
| Energy | Renewables above 50% of electricity — the sun and the wind of the islands; lignite to end by 2028; the Revithoussa LNG terminal and the Alexandroupolis terminal of 2024; the Greece–Egypt and Greece–Cyprus cables |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank); an OECD member since 1961 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Athens Eleftherios Venizelos, opened 2001 — about 30 million passengers; Heraklion; Thessaloniki Makedonia; Rhodes; Corfu; Santorini; the new Kastelli airport of Crete for 2027 |
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| Airline | Aegean Airlines, the flag carrier since Olympic Air merged into it in 2013; Olympic Airways of Onassis, 1957–2009 |
| Main ports | Piraeus — the largest port in the Mediterranean by containers under COSCO, and the busiest passenger port in Europe; Thessaloniki; Patras for Italy; Igoumenitsa; the ferries to every island |
| Railways | About 2,200 km (1,400 mi) — Hellenic Train, sold to Italy's Ferrovie in 2017; the Athens–Thessaloniki line where Tempi lies; the Athens Metro of 2000 with its stations of antiquities; the Thessaloniki Metro opened 30 November 2024 after eighteen years of digging through the ancient city |
| Roads | About 117,000 km (72,700 mi); the Egnatia Odos of 670 km across the north on the Roman road; the Athens–Patras and Athens–Thessaloniki motorways; the Rio–Antirrio bridge of 2004, 2.9 km across the Gulf of Corinth |
| The canal | The Corinth Canal, 6.3 km, cut in 1893 through the isthmus — 21 m wide at the base, too narrow for the ships of today |
History in dates
| c. 3000 BC | The Minoans of Crete — the first civilization of Europe; Knossos |
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| c. 1600 BC | Mycenae; the Trojan War by the poets |
| 776 BC | The first Olympic Games |
| c. 750 BC | Homer; the alphabet |
| 508 BC | Cleisthenes's reforms — democracy at Athens |
| 490 · 480 BC | Marathon; Thermopylae and Salamis |
| 447 BC | The Parthenon begun under Pericles |
| 399 BC | Socrates condemned |
| 338 BC | Chaeronea — Philip of Macedon; Alexander to India, dead 323 BC |
| 146 BC | Rome conquers Greece |
| 330 | Constantinople founded — the Byzantine millennium |
| 1453 | Constantinople falls, 29 May |
| 1821 | The War of Independence, 25 March |
| 1830 | Independence recognized, 3 February |
| 1896 | The first modern Olympics at Athens, 6 April |
| 1912–1913 | The Balkan Wars — Thessaloniki, Crete, Epirus and the islands won |
| 1922 | The Asia Minor catastrophe — Smyrna burns; the exchange of populations |
| 1940 | Oxi, 28 October |
| 1941–1944 | The occupation; the famine |
| 1946–1949 | The civil war |
| 1967 | The colonels' coup, 21 April |
| 1974 | The junta falls, 24 July; the republic, 8 December |
| 1981 | The European Community, 1 January; Andreas Papandreou |
| 2001 | The euro |
| 2004 | The Athens Olympics, 13 August; the Euro won, 4 July |
| 2010 | The first bailout, 2 May |
| 2015 | The referendum, 5 July; the capital controls |
| 2018 | The bailouts exited, 20 August; the Prespa agreement, 17 June |
| 2019 | Kyriakos Mitsotakis prime minister, 8 July |
| 2023 | Tempi, 28 February; the second majority, 25 June |
| 2025 | Konstantinos Tasoulas president, 13 March |
| 2027 | The election due by June |
Records & firsts
| The birthplace of democracy | Athens, 508 BC |
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| The birthplace of the Olympics | Olympia, 776 BC — and the first modern Games, 1896 |
| The longest coastline in the Mediterranean | 13,676 km |
| The longest national anthem | 158 stanzas |
| The largest merchant fleet | A fifth of the world's tonnage |
| The oldest currency name | The drachma, from the 6th century BC to 2001 |
| The largest debt restructuring in history | €200 billion, 2012 |
| A republic without women | Mount Athos, for a thousand years |
| The first civilization of Europe | The Minoans |
| The oldest olive trees | Crete, some 3,000 years |
| The most seismic country in Europe | Two plates meeting under the Aegean |
| The third olive-oil producer | After Spain and Italy |
| The Euro of 2004 | The tournament's greatest upset |
| The Parthenon | And the marbles in London since 1816 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Greece?
The Hellenic Republic — Ellinikí Dimokratía — since the referendum of 8 December 1974 that ended the monarchy after the junta. The Greeks call their country Hellas or Ellada and themselves Hellenes, after the mythical Hellen; "Greece" is the Romans' Graecia, from the Graeci, a tribe of Boeotia the Latins met first. The modern state was born in the War of Independence declared on 25 March 1821 and recognized by the London Protocol of 1830.
What is the capital of Greece?
Athens — Athína — under the Acropolis and the Parthenon, inhabited for more than five thousand years and the capital of the new state since 1834, when it was a town of a few thousand around the ruins; about 3.1 million people in the urban area and 3.6 million in Attica, a third of the country. Thessaloniki, the Byzantine second city, has about a million; Patras, Heraklion on Crete, Larissa and Volos follow.
How big is Greece, and how many people live there?
About 131,957 km² (50,949 sq mi) — a little smaller than England, about the size of Alabama — a fifth of it on some 6,000 islands, of which 227 are inhabited, from Crete, the largest at 8,336 km², to the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the Ionian and the Sporades. The census of 2021 counted 10,482,487 people; ELSTAT estimates about 10.4 million for 2025, the UN somewhat under 10 million — a population falling since 2011 through the lowest birth rate in its history and the emigration of the crisis years.
What are the highest and lowest points of Greece?
Mount Olympus, 2,917 m (9,570 ft), at Mytikas — the home of the gods, on the border of Thessaly and Macedonia, first climbed in 1913; and the Mediterranean. Greece has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean, 13,676 km, and is four-fifths mountain — the Pindus down its spine, the peaks of Crete, the gorge of Samaria and the Vikos, among the deepest in the world.
What currency does Greece use?
The euro (ISO code EUR, €), since 1 January 2001, replacing the drachma — the oldest currency name in Europe, in use since the 6th century BC — at 340.750; the notes and coins from 2002. Greece nearly left the euro in the crisis of 2015 and did not. Clocks keep Eastern European Time, UTC+2, with summer time.
Who governs Greece?
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of New Democracy, head of government from 2019 to 2023 and again since 26 June 2023, when he won an outright majority of 158 seats in the second election of that summer; and President Konstantinos Tasoulas, the ceremonial head of state since 13 March 2025, elected by parliament in January. The next election is due in the spring of 2027, by 30 June at the latest, and the prime minister has said the parliament will run its full term; PASOK under Nikos Androulakis has been the official opposition since November 2024, ahead of a fractured Syriza.
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