The Demographics of Greece refer to the demography of the population that inhabits the country. The population of Greece was estimated by the Hellenic Statistical Authority to be 10,372,335 in 2025. The latest census in Greece was conducted in 2021.
Historical overview Greece was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic period. 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 rest of the entire Mediterranean Basin,Mogens Herman Hansen, The Shotgun Method: The Demography of the Ancient Greek City-State Culture, University of Missouri Press, 2006. 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, that planned to establish permanent settlements in the region were the Slavs. They settled in isolated valleys of the Peloponnese and Thessaly, establishing segregated communities that were referred by the Byzantines as Sclaveni. Traces of Slavic culture in Greece are very rare and by the 9th century, the Sclaveni in Greece were largely assimilated. However, 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" (Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians), 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) 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 to the demography of the Greek Kingdom.Ethnic Changes in the Byzantine Empire in the Seventh Century
During the next decades, the population of Greece continued to increase, except during a large part of 1940s due to World War II and subsequent events. After 1940s the population of Greece continued to grow, though on a decreased pace after 1960s, due to a gradual decrease in fertility and emigration to various countries, such as West Germany, Australia, United Kingdom and many others. The birth rate decreased significantly in 1980s, while in 1987 the Greek population surpassed 10 million. At this time Greece had started to see a positive migration rate, due to the return of Greek Civil War refugees and international immigration. During the 1990s the population increased by close to 1 million, as the collapse of the communist governments in Eastern Europe and the economic downturn resulted in a significant influx of Eastern European immigrants to Greece, especially from the Balkans, including many diaspora Greeks returning home. In the 2000s the population continued to increase reaching 11 million, thanks to an increased birth rate, a stable influx of migrants from other countries and the return of Greeks from United States, Germany, Australia and other countries. In the 2010s, in the wake of the Greek financial crisis, the population started to decrease and birthrates plummeted, while death rates increased due to an aging population. Many Greeks emigrated abroad, while more recently the population decrease has been largely stabilized due to foreign immigration.
Recent Demographics
Population
Note: Crude migration change (per 1000) is a trend analysis, an extrapolation based average population change (current year minus previous) minus natural change of the current year (see table vital statistics). As average population is an estimate of the population in the middle of the year and not end of the year.
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. According to the official 2011 census, which used sophisticated methodology, the population of Greece was 10,816,286.
Census Population Change 1971 8,768,372 – 1981 9,739,589 11.1% 1991 10,259,900 5.3% 2001 10,964,020 6.9% 2011 10,816,286 −0.88%202110,482,487 −3.1%
By region
Greece is divided into nine geographic regions. The population of each region according to the 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses is represented in the table below, comparing the change in population over a 50-year period. The latest population estimates by the Hellenic Statistical Authority are also included.
RegionPopulation (1971)Population (1981)Population (1991) Population (2001)Population (2011)Population (2021)Population (2025) Aegean Islands417,813 428,030 456,555 508,807 508,246 522,763 534,963 Central Greece3,532,248 4,125,463 4,366,900 4,591,568 4,586,626 4,514,663 4,455,160 Crete456,642 501.909 536,433 601,131 623,065 624,408 621,121 Epirus310,334 323.871 327,176 353,822 336,856 319,991 324,061 Ionian Islands184,443 182.327 189,338 212,984 207,855 204,532 198,421 Macedonia1,890,684 2,116,361 2,225,690 2,424,765 2,402,771 2,266,206 2,229,959 Peloponnese986,912 1,014,485 1,045,020 1,155,019 1,046,897 995,410 981,399 Thessaly659,913 695,724 729,268 753,888 732,762 688,255 676,040 Thrace329,582 341,180 340,755 362,038 371,208 346,259 351,211 Total8,768,372 9,729,350 10,223,392 10,964,020 10,816,286 10,482,487 10,372,335 / = change since previous census
Fertility rate The total fertility rate is the number of children born per woman. It is based on fairly good data for the entire period. Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.
Years 18501851185218531854185518561857185818591860Total fertility rate in Greece6.035.81 5.595.365.144.924.74.474.254.033.81 Years 1861186218631864186518661867186818691870Total fertility rate in Greece3.953.87 3.783.943.734.033.833.853.863.77 Years 1871187218731874187518761877187818791880Total fertility rate in Greece3.813.83 3.73.913.783.973.823.643.323.27 Years 1881188218831884188518861887188818891890Total fertility rate in Greece3.283.38 3.353.833.824.014.194.384.574.73 Years 1891189218931894189518961897189818991900Total fertility rate in Greece4.84.88 4.955.035.15.185.255.325.45.47 Years 1901190219031904190519061907190819091910Total fertility rate in Greece5.355.22 5.14.974.854.724.64.474.354.22 Years 1911191219131914191519161917191819191920Total fertility rate in Greece4.093.97 3.843.723.593.473.343.223.092.97
Life expectancy
PeriodLife expectancy inYearsPeriodLife expectancy inYears1950–195565.81985–199075.61955–196067.21990–199577.41960–196569.31995–200078.11965–197070.12000–200579.11970–197571.82005–201080.01975–198072.82010–201580.61980–198574.52015–202081.2 Source: UN World Population Prospects
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 19.0% in 2011. In contrast, the percentage of the population of the ages 0–14 had a total decrease of 10.2% between 1961 and 2011.
Age group197119811991200120112021Population%Population%Population%Population%Population%Population% 0–14 2,223,90425.4 2,307,29723.7 1,974,86719.2 1,664,08515.2 1,576,50014.4 1,510,73614.1 15–64 5,587,35263.7 6,192,75163.6 6,880,68167.1 7,468,39568.1 7,122,83066.6 6,760,04063.3 65+ 957,11610.9 1,239,54112.7 1,404,35213.7 1,831,54016.7 2,108,80719.0 2,407,85622.6 Total8,768,3729,739,58910,259,90010,964,02010,816,28610,678,632
Vital statistics Vital statistics from 1833 Source: Hellenic Statistical AuthorityB.R. Mitchell. European historical statistics, 1750–1975.Historical Statistics of Greece: 1833–1959 (Bank of Greece / NSSG) Territorial changes of Greece occurred in 1881 (the addition of Thessaly), 1913 (the addition of Macedonia, Epirus, and the Aegean islands) and in 1923–1925 (Population exchange between Greece and Turkey)
Notable events in Greek demography:
1881 – Convention of Constantinople 1913 – Treaty of Athens 1918 – Spanish flu 1923 – Treaty of Lausanne 1940–1945 World War II 1946–1949 – Refugees of the Greek Civil War 1967–1974 – Greek junta 1981 – Greece joins the European Communities 2001 – Greece enters the Euro-zone 2009–2019 – Greek economic crisis 2020–2022 – COVID-19 pandemic
Average populationLive births