The People of Greece

Although Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is mostly an ethnically homogenous country. This paradox results primarily from the historical tendency for Greek culture to assimilate largely non-Greek populations. Since the establishment of the modern Greek state in the early 19th century, a vigorous nation-building project managed to include Orthodox Christian populations that were Hellenized (assimilated into Greek culture) to a great degree, but excluded other groups.

Ethnicity
Well over 95% of Greece's population-approximately 11 million people-would readily declare themselves ethnic Greeks. This ethnic identity has been shaped by the historical Greek struggles for independence and the emergence of the modern nation-state. During the revolutionary era in the early 19th century, Greek intellectuals were involved in shaping a distinctive Greek national identity among the mostly illiterate and largely impoverished population. Notions of "Greekness" were remote abstractions to the masses, who generally derived their identity from their region, class, Greek Orthodox traditions, and, to some extent, the Greek language.