Minorities in Greece

Part of a series on the
Culture of Greece
History Ancient regions and tribes Byzantine and Ottoman Greeks Christianization Colonization Coups d'état Demographic (Modern) Economic Geographical name changes Greek countries and regions Greek Muslims Renaissance scholars Hellenic languages and Proto-Greek Inventions and discoveries Language question Military Monarchy (Kings and royal family) Phanariotes Polis Population exchange of 1923
People
Languages
Mythology
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion Ancient religion (Origins, Modern Revival) Aerico Buddhism Catholicism Drosoulites Eastern Orthodox Church (Timeline: Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, Late Middle Ages, Early Modern Era, 19th century, Early 20th century, Late 20th century, Contemporary) Fairy tales Gello Greek Orthodox Church (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Church of Greece, Flag) Greek Old Calendarists Hinduism Hypertimos Islam Judaism (History) Kallikantzaros Lamia Mormo Mount Athos Mythology (Primordial deities, Titans, Twelve Olympians, Heracles, Odysseus, Jason, Oedipus, Perseus, Daedalus, Orpheus, Theseus, Bellerephon, Satyr, Centaur) Nymph Protestantism Psychai Sikhism Thymiaterion Name days Vrykolakas Wayside shrine
Art
Literature Ancient (to 4th century AD) Byzantine (4th–15th century) Modern (post 11th century)
Music and performing arts Theatre
Media Radio Television Cinema
Sport Ancient Olympics Baseball Basketball Cricket Football Hockey Ice hockey Modern Olympics (1896, 1906, 2004) Rugby league
Monuments World Heritage Sites
Symbols Flag Coat of arms National anthem
Greece portal
v t e

Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous.^[1] This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey (Convention of Lausanne) and Bulgaria (Treaty of Neuilly), which removed most Muslims (with the exception of the Muslims of Western Thrace) and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks from Greek territory. The treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees. There is no official information for the size of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities because asking the population questions pertaining to the topic have been abolished since 1951.^[2]

The main officially recognized "minority" (μειονότητα, meionótita) is the Muslim minority (μουσουλμανική μειονότητα, mousoulmanikí meionótita) in Thrace, Northern Greece, which numbered 120,000 according to the 2001 census^[3] and mainly consists of Western Thrace Turks, Pomaks (both mainly inhabiting Western Thrace), and also Romani, found particularly in central and Northern Greece. Other recognized minority groups are the Armenians numbering approximately 35,000,^[4] and the Jews (Sephardim and Romaniotes) numbering approximately 5,500.^[5]