The population of Greece. History and modernity

The state of Greece (officially - the Greek Republic) is located in Europe, at its southern extremity. The population of Greece also (the fourth part of it) also lives on the islands in the Aegean Sea. Most people are concentrated in especially large cities, such as Athens (the capital of the state) and Thessaloniki. According to data for 2008, the urban population of Greece was 61% of the total country.

According to the census

According to the census results for 2012, the main part (93%) of the inhabitants are Greeks. The remaining population of Greece is made up of Albanians, Turks, Armenians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Georgians. It should be noted that Greece is one of the few EU countries that in 1998 and 2001 conducted mass legalizations of all foreign citizens (illegal immigrants) in the country. As a result, more than half a million people legalized their stay in the country, which is certainly an impressive figure for the 11-million republic. They also replenished the population of Greece.

Background

Such a diversity of nationalities is conditioned by historical conditions. The Greeks are a nationality that began to form at the beginning of the second millennium BC. E. The beginning was the invasion of the Balkan Peninsula of the Achaean, Ionian and Dorian tribes that came from Illyria and the Danube region. Initially, the population of Ancient Greece was called the Epic Dorians. The inhabitants of Italy at that time (Italics) designated by this name all the tribes that inhabited the Balkan Peninsula.

Hellenes

The Greeks themselves called themselves exclusively Hellenes (Indo-European group of peoples). These tribes moved in several streams. As a result of the last Dorian invasion, the islands of the Aegean Sea were populated (including the once-powerful Crete, which had become weakened and had by then declined) and the coasts of Asia Minor. The Greeks settled along the coast of the Black Sea and also in the Mediterranean. During the Hellenistic period, connected with the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the Greeks penetrated and settled in the Near and Middle Asia. In the year 148 BC. E. The Romans conquer Macedonia, and Greece becomes part of the Roman Empire. Then, under the division of the Roman Empire, the Greek regions pass to Byzantium. Subsequently, the infiltration of the barbarians (primarily the Slavic tribes) into the Balkans in the 6th-7th centuries AD. However, their settlements in South Macedonia were completely exterminated by the Greek population.

Turkish rule

About four centuries, Greece was under oppression of the Ottoman Turkey, but Turkish influence was insignificant. At the end of the First World War, a wave of mass migrations occurred, which led to an increase in the homogeneity of the composition of the country. By the middle of the 20th century, the Greek population (the main part) was the Greeks.

Today's situation

Now the increase in women in the Hellenic Republic is 200 thousand more than for men. The reason is simple - the male population goes abroad in search of work, which has become a habit for Greece. They leave mainly from economically undeveloped areas, such as the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas, the Peloponnese, Epirus and Thrace. It is believed that the Greeks are an aging nation. However, this statement can be called controversial, if only because of the average life expectancy of Greece in the world 26th place, agree, not the very last. In men, this age is 77.11 years, for women it is 82.37. The total indicator is 79.66 years. However, in terms of growth rates, Greece in 2012 ranked 188th in the world. For one hundred people, the birth rate is 9.34. This figure shows that the average number of children born by Greek women is 1.37 children per year.

Religion

As for religion, in the majority it is Orthodoxy. And the Catholic faith is prevalent mainly on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Muslim-professing citizens can be found only on the island of Rhodes.

According to a study conducted in 2013, the population of 131,957 square kilometers of the population of Greece was about 11.3 million people. According to these indicators, Greece took 74th place in the world.