Greece, which is located in Europe, is one of the most gorgeous places to visit with beautiful beaches, great archaeological sites and cities, several historical monuments which have inspired some modern education and culture around the world. According to the 2001 census the population of Greece is home to 10,964,020 people. Greece has received a large number of immigrants since the early 1990s (Greece, 2008). The majority of them come from the neighboring countries. The population of northern Greece has been ethnically, religiously and linguistically combined.
The Muslim minority of Greece is the nly recognized minority group in Greece by the government. The officials define it as a group of Greek Muslims numbering 98,000 people, consisting of Turks (50%), Pomaks (35%) and Romani (15%) (Greece, 2008). The primary language of Greece is Greek; Greek is spoken mostly by everyone in Greece or at least their secondary language. Greek is a part of the independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest background history of any living language today, covering 34 centuries of written records.
In the United States the eople use Greek letters for fraternities and sororities. According to the Greek constitution, Eastern Orthodox Christianity is recognized as the “prevailing religion” in Greece (Greece, 2008). The Church is often credit with the preservation of the Greek language, values, and national identity during the Ottoman times. The Church was also an important coming to the point in the war for independence, although this end position is somewhat controversial as the official Church in Constantinople initially condemned the breakout of armed struggle against the Empire (Greece, 2008).
Greek education is ree and compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 15 (Greece, 2008). English study is required from first grade through high school. University education, including books, is also free, change upon the student’s ability to meet the entrance requirements. A high percentage of the student population seeks higher education. More than 100,000 students are registered at the Greek universities, and 15% of Greece population currently holds a university degree (Greece, 2008). Admission in a university is determined by state exams, the student’s grade-point average from high school, and the student’s choices of major.
About one out of four candidates gains admission to Greek universities. Greek law does not offer official recognition to the graduates of private universities in the country, except for those that offer a degree in another European Union country, which is automatically recognized mutuality (Greece, 2008). The demographics in Greece in 2011 Age structure is 0-14 years: 14. 2% (male 787,143/female 741,356), 15-64 years: 66. 2% (male 3,555,447/female 3,567,383), 65 years and over: 19. 6% (male 923,177/female 1,185,630) (Greece, 2009).
In 2011, urban population: 61% of total population rate of urbanization: 0. 6% annual rate of change Greece, 2009). The life expectancy at birth in 2012, the total population was 80. 05 years, male 77. 48 years and female 82. 79 years (Greece, 2009). Two-thirds of the Greek people live in urban areas. Greece’s largest metropolitan centers and most effective to urban areas are those of Athens and Thessaloniki with metropolitan populations of approximately 4 million and 1 million inhabitants respectively (Greece, 2009). Greece is very big with many people staying there.
Greece is a large state with millions of people living there. Athens is the capital and largest city in Greece, and has a population over 700,000 (Greece, 009). It is one of the world’s oldest cities, with a recorded history of over 3,400 years (Greece, 2009). Its larger metropolitan area stretches to contain over 4 million people, making Athens one of the biggest metropolitan areas of Europe. It is an alpha world city, which means a global city that is the cultural, economic and administrative center of the country of Greece.
Athens is turning into a major business center, and it’s a very rich, and is an expensive city for the most part. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, with a population of 348,000 in it (Greece, 2009). This has been stated to be the hippest Greek city. It is also famous for having beautiful beaches. Greece hosts cultural events like carnivals, Thessaloniki Film Festival and the International Trade Fair. Greece government is a parliamentary democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and of a multi-party system (Greece, 2016).
Greece is primarily known for being a democratic state. Greek politics is often described as dynastic, with long- established political families controlling the positions of power. This is certainly true for the Prime Ministers, but there are many Ministers and Members of Parliament with no relation to political families (Greece, 2016). Every country has its own history from back in time. There is not a lot of countries on this earth that have seen their history be an influence on other countries on the same level as Greece (Greece, 2016).
All together the country’s history has been in effect since the stone age era, but it is still effective for us today during the ancient Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic eras. Between the Stone Age and today, Greece has suffered earthshaking events and has gone through several transformations. For example, the kingdoms of the Bronze Age transformed into the first ever Democratic societies, and the dominant Pagan religion was replaced after four thousand years by passionate devotion to Christianity (Greece, 2016). No matter what Greece has been through it still manages to be beautiful.
The culture produced by the ancient Greek civilization touched every neighbor it came in contact with, and many of its ideas have become the source of what we consider Western civilization. Greece is the 46th largest in the world with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $194. 851 billion per annum. Gemelos, 2005). Greece is relatively poor in natural resources. Bauxite, from which aluminum is produced, is the most significant mineral resource, and there are also deposits of asbestos, nickel, magnesite, and marble (Gemelos, 2005).
The country has little black coal, and its lignite (brown coal) is of poor quality. The main imports of Greece are chemicals, equipment used for transport, fuels, and machinery. About 25 percent of Greece’s imports come from Germany and Italy (Gemelos, 2005). Three major issues in Greece right now are mounting unemployment, homelessness and crime. Over the past three ears unemployment has roughly doubled, and Greece has lost more than 10 percent of its output. Nearly 320,000 people lost their jobs in the 12-month period ending in February 2017, pushing the unemployment rate to 22 percent (Greece, 2016).
Greece’s 3. 8 million employed people are supporting the 4. 5 million who don’t work – 1. 1 million officially unemployed and 3. 4 million considered financially inactive (Greece, 2016). Homelessness, the most visible sign of Greece’s financial despair, has risen by around 25 percent, according to estimates by a state-funded relief agency. That number includes more eople from traditionally stable backgrounds such as high school and university graduates (Greece, 2016).
The Public Order Ministry has reported an increase in nearly all categories of crime between 2010 and 2011, with murder up 5 percent and armed robberies in occupied homes up 110 percent. Greece is having the same problems as the entire United States with unemployment, homelessness and crime. The best way I feel to get rid of all these issues is to address them one by one. Unemployment can be fixed if Greece was more industrialized, Greece should stop buying materials they can grow and make their selves. Once Greece become more industrialized that will create more jobs for people so homelessness will eventually go down.
As far as crime, if people had other things to do, like a job, the crime rate would go down. Greece position in the international system, is one of the oldest Euro-Atlantic member states in the region of Southeast Europe, Greece enjoys a important geopolitical role as a middle power, due to its political and geographical close to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Greece main allies are France, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, the US, the other NATO countries, and the European Union (Kousis nd Kousis, 2002).
Greece also maintains strong relations with Cyprus, Serbia, Armenia, Albania, Italy, Egypt and Israel, while at the same time focuses at improving furthering the good relations with Russia, the Arab World, Caucasus, and China (Kousis and Kousis, 2002). Greece is a beautiful sate of Europe, like every other state Greece has its issues but the problem does not take away the beauty. Despite the unemployment, crime and homelessness, Greece is a very exciting place to visit with a lot of history behind it. Countries all over the world take bits and piece of the Greek culture.
