Information

General Information

GENERAL INFORMATION

Religion. 97.6% of the Greek population is Orthodox. There are a few small groups of Protestants, Muslims in Thrace, Catholics in the Cyclades and Jews with synagogues in Athens and Thessaloniki. The Orthodox Church is a National Church and has a considerable influence on the social organization of the country.

Political System. The current Greek Constitution dates from 1975.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos, member of New Democracy, is the current President of the Republic elected on February the 18th 2015 by the Hellenic Parliament designed for 2015-2020. No party won the absolute majority required to govern in the national elections held on January the 25th, 2015. However, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza and winner of these elections, reached an agreement with the leader of the Independent Greeks party (ANEL), Panos Kammenos, thus forming the government for the coming years. Tsipras was sworn in as Prime Minister.

06-greek-flag Greek Flag and National Anthem: The Greek flag is light blue and white. It is made up of nine horizontal lines (five blue and four white, starting and concluding with blue) and in the upper left corner there is a square which forms a white cross. These colours respectively symbolize the Greek sky, the foamy waves of the sea, and the white peaks on the mountains. The five blue lines represent the syllables of the word “eleftheria” (“freedom” in Greek) and the four white lines stand for “i thanatos” (“oh death”) the motto of Greek soldiers during the Ottoman occupation when they fought against the Turks for Greece’s freedom. The national anthem is comprised of the first two verses of the poem “Hymn to freedom”, by the poet Dionysios Solomos, and the music of Nicolaos Manzaros.

Area: 131.944 km2
Population: 10,665,989 inhabitants. Almost half of them live in Athens and the closest surrounding regions.
Coastal area: 15,021 km.
Number of islands: around 3,000 islands
Highest peak: Mount Olympus (2,917 m)
Approximate Inflation: -1.4% (2014)
Time Zone. Greece is in zone GMT +2.
Currency. The Drachma was the official currency before the Euro arrived in Greece. From January 2002, the Euro has been the currency used in Greece.
Measuring system. Decimal Metrical System.