Advanced search

Travel & living abroad

• Travel advice by country
• Asia and Oceania
• Europe
• Middle East and North Africa
• North and Central America and Caribbean
• South America and South Atlantic Islands
• Sub Saharan Africa
• How we produce our travel advice
• Country profiles
• Asia and Oceania
• Europe
• Middle East and North Africa
• North & Central America and Caribbean
• South America and South Atlantic Islands
• Sub Saharan Africa
• Find an Embassy
• Travel alerts
• Passports
• Staying safe and healthy
• When things go wrong
• Your trip
• Be a responsible tourist
• Living overseas
• Births, deaths, marriages
• Know Before You Go campaign
• Our publications
• Consular feedback questionnaires
• Contact us

Europe

Greece
Last reviewed: 27 January 2009

Country information

Area: 131,990 sq km
Population: 10.94 million (2001 census estimate)
Capital City: Athens (population approximately 3.7 million)
People: 98% Greek with Muslim minority comprising Turkic people, Pomaks and Muslim Roma. NB: The Greek government states there are no other ethnic minorities in Greece.
Languages: Greek 99% (official)
Religions: Greek Orthodox 98%, Muslim 1.3%, other 0.7%
Currency: euro (EUR)
Major political parties: New Democracy (ND - conservative); party leader Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK); party leader George Papandreou. Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos – left-wing); party leader Alexis Tsipras. Communist Party of Greece (KKE); party leader Aleka Papariga. Popular Orthodox Alert (LAOS); party leader George Karatzaferis.
Government: Greece is a parliamentary democracy. Universal direct suffrage for those over the age of 18. Executive power rests in the 300 member Greek Parliament (Vouli). Centre-right New Democracy won office on 7 March 2004 for the first time since 1993 ND was reelected 17 September 2007.
Head of State: President Karolos Papoulias
Prime Minister: Costas Karamanlis
Foreign Minister: Dora Bakoyannis
Membership of international groups/organisations: European Union (joined the EC in 1981; Greece held the Presidency of the EU from January to June 2003), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) (joined in 1952), United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Greece is currently on the UN Security Council for the period 2005/6. Member of the Council of Europe. Member of The Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Country information

Pick Another Country :

Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar (British Overseas Territory) Holy See  Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Monaco Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal  Romania Russia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine

Share this with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• StumbleUpon

Travel Advice

Travel advice: Greece 

See Also

Useful Links

• BBC Timeline of Greece
• British Council: Greece
• Greece Now includes a Greek timeline, city guides, latest news and weather
• Kathimerini - English language version of Greek daily newspaper
• UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Greece

FCO Blogger

Copyright 2009 Foreign & Commonwealth Office