The permanent population of Greece, which reached 10.482 million in the recent census, is extremely unevenly distributed across the country. The two most populous Regional Units (RU), those of Thessaloniki and the Central Sector of Athens, host 2.09 million people (20.0% of the total population) while occupying only 2.8% of Greece’s area. The 10 most populous RUs – six of which are in the Attica Region – gather 53.0% of the population in 12.8% of the country’s area. Conversely, the 10 least populous RUs (all islands) contain only 0.86% of the population (89.9 thousand people) in 2.1% of the area. These are some of the initial findings in the recent digital bulletin by the Institute of Demographic Research and Studies (IDEM) on “The Extremely Uneven Distribution of Population in Greece.”

Professor Vassilis Pappas, the author of this article and a founding member of IDEM, highlights the uneven distribution of the population using data from the latest census. This unevenness is even more pronounced when examining population distribution at levels below the Regional Units (Municipalities and Municipal Units). For instance, at the municipal level (332 units), Professor Pappas notes that the 10 most populous municipalities (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Piraeus, Larissa, Volos, Peristeri, Rhodes, and Ioannina) account for 21.0% of the total population (2.2 million), while the 10 least populous (Tilos, Folegandros, Megisti, Chalki, Psara, Anafi, Agios Efstratios, Sikinos, Agathonisi, and Gavdos) have a total of just 4.1 thousand inhabitants (0.04% of the total population).

More Intense Population Disparity at the Municipal Unit Level

The phenomenon of population disparity is even more pronounced when examining the Municipal Units, says Professor Pappas. Only 8 out of the existing 1,036 Municipal Units have a permanent population exceeding 100,000 (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Piraeus, Heraklion, Larissa, Peristeri, and Acharnes), with half of these located in the Attica Region. Meanwhile, 66 Municipal Units, mostly in Attica, the greater Thessaloniki area, or parts of regional capitals, concentrated 50.1% of the total population in 2021 (5.25 million) in 4.3% of the area. Simultaneously, 80% of the permanent population in 2021 (8.39 million) resided in 277 Municipal Units covering 25.2% of the total area. This percentage has halved from 1951 to 2021, as in the first post-war census, 8 out of 10 inhabitants lived in 55.5% of the area.

Disparity Within Regional Units

According to Professor Pappas, population disparity also characterizes many Regional Units internally, where the most populous community in each RU is often disproportionately large. Analysis reveals that:

• In 6 Regional Units (Patras, Larissa, Xanthi, Komotini, Drama, and Trikala), the most populous Municipal Community gathers over 50% of the RU’s population while occupying less than 3% of its area.
• In 31 Regional Units, the most populous Municipal Community contains 20-49.6% of the population within 0.31-4.72% of the RU’s area.
• Island Regional Units have different patterns depending on the size and character of each island.
• The Municipal Communities of large urban complexes in Attica and Thessaloniki show a different picture as the RUs they belong to are mainly urban with large population concentrations.

Impact on Social and Economic Development

Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, Professor Vassilis Pappas notes that 80% of the population now resides in just 710 out of 13,589 settlements in the country. This extremely uneven spatial distribution, a result of the post-war development model and lack of spatial planning, is accompanied by an unequal distribution of the workforce, economic activities, and produced wealth. This creates significant problems for the social and economic development of Greece and its territorial cohesion. Additionally, with a problematic population distribution by age (increased aging), it has already impacted the demographic dynamism of many low-density areas. These areas typically experience high death-to-birth ratios and continuous population decline annually, raising serious doubts about their ability to avoid demographic collapse.