GEOGRAPHICAL – DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Country’s location

Hellas (or Greece), (Ελλάς, Ellas), is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe.  

Athens (Αθήνα, Athina) is the nation’s capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη).

It is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast.

The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a large number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited.

Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres (9,573 ft).

Country’s geographic divisions (prefectures, cities etc.)

Hellas (or Greece), (Ελλάς, Ellas) consists of 9 geographic regions:

• Macedonia, 
• Central Greece,
• Peloponnese, 
• Thessaly, 
• Epirus,
• Aegean Islands (including Dodecanese and Cyclades), 
• Thrace, 
• Crete and
• Ionian Islands

The Climate of Greece

The climate in Greece is typical of the Mediterranean climate: mild and rainy winters, relatively warm and dry summers and, generally, extended periods of sunshine throughout most of the year.

A great variety of climate subtypes, always in the Mediterranean climate frame, are encountered in several regions of Greece. This is due to the influence of topography (great mountain chains along the central part and other mountainous bodies) on the air coming from the moisture sources of the central Mediterranean Sea.

Thus from the dry climate of Attiki (the great area of capital, Athens) and generally of East Greece, change over to the wet one of North and West Greece. In terms of climatology, the year can be broadly divided mainly into two seasons. The cold and rainy period lasting from the mid of October until the end of March, and the warm and non -rain season lasting from April until September.

During the first period the coldest months are January and February, with, on average, mean minimum temperature ranging between 5 -10 degrees of Celsius near the coasts and 0 – 5 over mainland areas, with lower values (generally below freezing) over the northern part of the country.

Rainfall in Greece even in the winter, does not last a lot of days and the sky does not remain cloudy for several consecutive days, as it happens in other regions of the world. Winter bad weather days are often interrupted, during January and the first fortnight of February, with sunny days, well known as ‘Alkion days’ in ancient times. The winter is milder in islands of Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea than in the North and East Greece.

During the warm and non-rain period the weather is almost stable, the sky is clear, the sun is bright and generally does not rain. However, there are scarce intervals with rapid rain or thunderstorms of small duration mainly in mainland areas.

The warmest period is the last ten-day period of July and the first one of August, when the mean maximum temperature lies in the range of 29.0 and 35.0 degrees of Celsius

Hellenic National Meteorological Service http://www.hnms.gr/emy/en/

Demographic info

The Resident Population of Greece based on the census carried out in 2011 is 10.816.286, of which 5.303.223 male (49,0 %) and 5.513.063 female (51,0%), in real terms however it is approximately 11m.  

Almost two-thirds of the Greek people live in urban areas. Greece’s largest and most influential metropolitan centres are those of Athens and Thessaloniki, with metropolitan populations of approximately 4 million and 1 million inhabitants respectively.

Other prominent cities with urban populations above 100,000 inhabitants include those of Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Rhodes, Ioannina, Agrinio, Chania, and Chalcis.

The largest cities in Greece, by population (Census 2011):

Hellenic Statistical Authority http://www.statistics.gr/en/2011-census-pop-hous