Greeks in South Africa

Greek South Africans
Έλληνες Νοτιοαφρικανοί
Greek Orthodox Saints Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Hillbrow, Johannesburg
Total population
120,000 (estimate)[1]

50,000-60,000 (estimate)[2]

120,000 (estimate, 1970)[3]
70,000 (estimate, 1990)[3]
40,000 (estimate, 2012)[4]

35,000 (estimate, 2022)[3][5]
Languages
Religion
Greek Orthodox Church
Related ethnic groups
Mediterraneans, Turkish South Africans, Italian South Africans, Portuguese South Africans
Map of the top 50 countries with the largest Greek communities.

Greek South Africans are South Africans of Greek ancestry from Greece and Cyprus.

Greek immigration to South Africa (at its highest in the 1960s, with 10,790 immigrants) peaked in 1965 (Damanakis 2003). It gradually began to decline in the 1970s, and after 1994 many Greeks returned to Greece to retire, or because they harboured fears about the changing political situation in South Africa. The community has since decreased from an estimated 120,000 to 40,000.[4]

  1. ^ Greeks around the Globe
  2. ^ "Greek Foreign Ministry". Archived from the original on 5 June 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "The Turbulent Story of Greeks in South Africa". Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  4. ^ a b "What is the future of Greek in South Africa? Language shift and maintenance in the Greek community of Johannesburg". Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  5. ^ "Where have all the Greeks gone? The story of Greeks in Africa". Retrieved 26 March 2023.