Drops of Knowledge – Discovering Black Sea Facts & Figures
BSEC Countries Edition - Hellenic Republic
20 June 2025
The International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) is launching the Drops of Knowledge – Discovering Black Sea Facts & Figures “BSEC Countries Edition”.
Thirteen infographics -one for each of the thirteen BSEC Member States- with the aim to provide comprehensive information of key socioeconomic indicators, such as population, unemployment, education, economy, and climate change. The infographics will be published monthly.
The sixth infographic focuses on the Hellenic Republic.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Urban Development: 38% of the urban population lives in Athens, the country’s largest city (2024).
- Agriculture and Rural Development: 19% of the total population lives in rural areas, as of 2023. In 1960, the first year this indicator was recorded, the percentage of the rural population was 44%.
- Population: 63% of the total population is between the ages 15-64 (2023).
- Climate Change and Environment: 21.50% of the total final energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources (2021).
- Gender Inequality Index (GII): The GII measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions: a) reproductive health, b) empowerment, c) and labour market. Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men. In 2023, Greece ranks 34 out of 172 countries.
- Education*: During the last decade (2011-2021), government expenditure on education has decreased from 8.2% to 7.1%.
- Science and Technology: In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, gross domestic expenditures on research and development (R&D) are 1.49%. In 1997, the first year in which this indicator was recorded, the percentage was 0.43%.
- Economy and Growth: In 2023, the annual percentage growth rate of GDP is 2.3%. In 2024, inflation as measured by the consumer price index is 2.7%. Over the last twenty years (2003-2023), exports of goods and services have increased from 18.9% to 43.7%, while imports have increased from 29% to 48.4%.
- Unemployment: Over the last twenty years (2004-2024), unemployment of the total labour force has decreased from 10.6% to 10.1%. Male youth unemployment increased from 19% to 23.2%, while female youth unemployment decreased from 36.3% to 26.6% (labour force ages 15-24, modeled ILO estimate).
- Trade: 2023 and 2024, the most recent years for which data is available, saw the highest percentage of high-technology exports of all years, at 15% of manufactured exports.
*In 2022, Greece has a school enrollment ratio in secondary education of 106% (% gross) and in tertiary education of 167% (% gross). As the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) mentions, “Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) can exceed 100% due to the inclusion of over-aged and under-aged pupils/students because of early or late entrants, and grade repetition”.
Sources:
The World Bank Group, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
United Nations Development Programme, Gender Inequality Index (GII), https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/thematic-composite-indices/gender-inequality-index#/indicies/GII
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), https://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary
All last accessed on 29 May 2025.
