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This article is about the demographic features of the population of Greece, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

The Demographics of Greece refer to the demography of the population that inhabits the Greek peninsula, a region where the Greek language has been continuously spoken and the Greek nation has been living for over 3,500 years. As of January 2008, the population of Greece is estimated at 11,262,000 by Eurostat.

Historical overview

Greece was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic period. Prior to the 2nd millennium BC, the Greek peninsula was inhabited by various pre-hellenic peoples, the most notable of which were the Pelasgians. The Greek language ultimately dominated the peninsula and Greece's mosaic of small city-states became culturally similar. The population estimates on the Greeks during the 4th century BC, is approximately 3.5 million on the Greek peninsula and 4 to 6.5 million in the entire Mediterranean Basin,² including all colonies such as those in Magna Graecia, Asia Minor and the shores of the Black Sea.

During the history of the Byzantine Empire, the Greek peninsula was occasionally invaded by the foreign peoples like Goths, Avars, Slavs, Normans, Franks and other Romance-speaking peoples who had betrayed the Crusades. The only group, however, which planned to establish permanent settlements in the region were the Slavs. They supposedly settled in isolated valleys of the Peloponnese and Thessaly, establishing segregated communities that were referred by the Byzantines as Sclaveni. However, traces of Slavic culture in Greece are very rare. Yet, by the 9th century, the Sclaveni in Greece were largely eliminated. The populations in central and southern Greece were the subject of population exchanges and army recruitments, but some Slavic communities managed to survive in rural Macedonia. At the same time a large Sephardi Jewish emigrant community from the Iberian peninsula established itself in Thessaloniki, while there were population movements of Arvanites and Vlachs, who established communities in several parts of the Greek peninsula. The Byzantine Empire ultimately fell to Ottoman Turks in the 15th century and as a result Ottoman colonies were established in the Balkans, notably in Macedonia, the Peloponnese and Crete. Many Greeks either fled to other European nations or to geographically isolated areas (i.e. mountains and heavily forested territories) in order to escape foreign rule. For those reasons, the population decreased in the plains, while increasing on the mountains. The population transfers with Bulgaria and Turkey that took place in the early 20th century, added in total some two million Greeks from to the demography of the Greek Kingdom.

Population

According to the 2001 census the population of Greece was 10,964,020. Eurostat estimations as of January 2008 gave the number of 11,214,992 inhabitants in the Greek peninsula.

By region

Greece is divided into nine geographic regions. The population of each region according to the 2001 census:

Age structure

Being part of the phenomenon of the aging of Europe, the Greek population shows a rapid increase of the percentage of the elderly people. Greece's population census of 1961 found that 10.9% of the total population was above the age of 65, while the percentage of this group age increased to 16.7% in 2001. On the contrary, the percentage of the population of the ages 0-14 had a total decrease of 10.2% between 1961 and 2001.

Immigration

Greece has received a large number of immigrants since the early 1990s. The 2001 census revealed that 797,091 foreigners lived permanently in the country³ and comprised 6.95% of the total population, while their number in 1990 was 142,367.⁴ The majority of them come from the neighbouring countries. As of 2006, the number of foreigners in an estimated total of 11,148,533 people⁵ was 695,979⁶ or 6.24%. The main ethnic groups were:

Languages

Note: Greek is the dominant language throughout Greece; inclusion in a non-Greek language zone does not necessarily imply that the relevant minority language is still spoken there, or that its speakers consider themselves an ethnic minority.

The official language of Greece is Greek, spoken by some 99% of the total population. Apart from Modern Greek which is the standard form of the Greek language and is officially recognized, there are several non-official modern Greek dialects spoken throughout the country as well. Additionally, there is a number of linguistic minority groups which are bilingual in Greek and several non-Greek dialects, and most of these groups identify ethnically as Greeks. The most common of all these dialects, the groups which speak them and the regions where they are considered native are:⁷

Education

Greek education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 15. English study is compulsory from third grade through high school. University education, including books, is also free, contingent upon the student's ability to meet stiff entrance requirements. A high percentage of the student population seeks higher education. More than 100,000 students are registered at Greek universities, and 15% of the population currently holds a university degree. Admission in a university is determined by state-administered exams, the candidate's grade-point average from high school, and his/her priority choices of major. About one in four candidates gains admission to Greek universities.

Greek law does not currently offer official recognition to the graduates of private universities that operate in the country, except for those that offer a degree valid in another European Union country, which is automatically recognized by reciprocity. As a result, a large and growing number of students are pursuing higher education abroad. The Greek Government decides through an evaluation procedure whether to recognize degrees from specific foreign universities as qualification for public sector hiring. Other students attend private, post-secondary educational institutions in Greece that are not recognized by the Greek Government. At the moment extensive public talk is made for the reform of the Constitution in order to recognize private higher education in Greece as equal with public and to place common regulations for both.

The number of Greek students studying at European institutions is increasing along with EU support for educational exchange. In addition, nearly 5,000 Greeks are studying in the United States, about half of whom are in graduate school. Greek per capita student representation in the US (one every 2,200) is among the highest in Europe.

Religion

According to the Greek constitution, Eastern Orthodox Christianity is recognized as the "prevailing religion" in Greece. During the centuries of Ottoman domination, besides its spiritual mandate, the Orthodox Church, based in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), also functioned as an official representative of the Christian population of the empire. The Church is often credited with the preservation of the Greek language, values, and national identity during Ottoman times. The Church was also an important rallying point in the war for independence, although this latter position is somewhat controversial as the official Church in Constantinople initially condemned the breakout of armed struggle against the Empire. The Church of Greece was established shortly after the formation of a Greek national state. Its authority to this day extends only to the areas included in the embryonic Greek state of 1833. There is a Muslim minority concentrated in Thrace and officially protected by the Treaty of Lausanne. Besides Pomaks (Muslim Slavic speakers) and Roma, it consists mainly of ethnic Turks, who speak Turkish and receive instruction in Turkish at special government-funded schools. There are also a number of Jews in Greece, most of whom live in Thessaloniki. There are also some Greeks who adhere to a reconstruction of the ancient Greek religion.⁸ A place of worship has been recognized as such by court.⁹

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