{ "Introduction": { "Background": { "text": "Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In World War II, Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war between supporters of the king and other anti-communist and communist rebels. Following the latter's defeat in 1949, Greece joined NATO in 1952. In 1967, a group of military officers seized power, establishing a military dictatorship that suspended many political liberties and forced the king to flee the country. In 1974 following the collapse of the dictatorship, democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary republic and abolished the monarchy. In 1981, Greece joined the EC (now the EU); it became the 12th member of the European Economic and Monetary Union in 2001. From 2009 until 2019, Greece suffered a severe economic crisis, due to nearly a decade of chronic overspending and structural rigidities. Beginning in 2010, Greece entered three bailout agreements - the first two with the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF; and the third in 2015 with the European Stability Mechanism - worth in total about $300 billion. The Greek Government formally exited the third bailout in August 2018." } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, between Albania and Turkey" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "39 00 N, 22 00 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "Europe" }, "Area": { "total": { "text": "131,957 sq km" }, "land": { "text": "130,647 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "1,310 sq km" } }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "slightly smaller than Alabama" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "1,110 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Albania 212 km; Bulgaria 472 km; North Macedonia 234 km; Turkey 192 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "13,676 km" }, "Maritime claims": { "territorial sea": { "text": "6 nm" }, "continental shelf": { "text": "200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation" } }, "Climate": { "text": "temperate; mild, wet winters; hot, dry summers" }, "Terrain": { "text": "mountainous with ranges extending into the sea as peninsulas or chains of islands" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Mount Olympus 2,917" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Mediterranean Sea 0 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "498 m" }, "note": "note: Mount Olympus actually has 52 peaks but its highest point, Mytikas (meaning \"nose\"), rises to 2,917 meters; in Greek mythology, Olympus' Mytikas peak was the home of the Greek gods" }, "Natural resources": { "text": "lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel, magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "63.4% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 19.7% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 8.9% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 34.8% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "30.5% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "6.1% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "11,853 sq km (2019)" }, "Population distribution": { "text": "one-third of the population lives in and around metropolitan Athens; the remainder of the country has moderate population density mixed with sizeable urban clusters" }, "Natural hazards": { "text": "
severe earthquakes
volcanism: Santorini (367 m) has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; although there have been very few eruptions in recent centuries, Methana and Nisyros in the Aegean are classified as historically active
" }, "Geography - note": { "text": "strategic location dominating the Aegean Sea and southern approach to Turkish Straits; a peninsular country, possessing an archipelago of about 2,000 islands" } }, "People and Society": { "Population": { "text": "10,497,595 (2023 est.)" }, "Nationality": { "noun": { "text": "Greek(s)" }, "adjective": { "text": "Greek" } }, "Ethnic groups": { "text": "Greek 91.6%, Albanian 4.4%, other 4% (2011 est.)", "note": "note: data represent citizenship; Greece does not collect data on ethnicity" }, "Languages": { "Languages": { "text": "Greek (official) 99%, other (includes English and French) 1%" }, "major-language sample(s)": { "text": "Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their complex maritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea; the mass migration of unemployed Albanians still remains a problem for developed countries, chiefly Greece and Italy
" }, "Refugees and internally displaced persons": { "refugees (country of origin)": { "text": "41,594 (Syria), 33,549 (Afghanistan), 14,228 (Iraq), 6,366 (West Bank and Gaza) (mid-year 2022); 23,780 (Ukraine) (as of 30 April 2023)" }, "stateless persons": { "text": "4,488 (2022)" }, "note": "note: 1,241,248 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015-July 2023)" }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis products and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine transits or is consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug trafficking and organized crime" } } }