The Internet in Greece 2015

About Greece and Greek ICT infrastructure

Greece is situated in the Southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, in a strategic location at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, a country combining towering mountains of the mainland and an archipelago of about 2,000 islands. Greece has been the 10th member that joined the EC in 1981 and the 12th member of the European Economic and Monetary Union, the “Eurozone”, in 2001. It is a founding member of the United Nations as well as member in numerous other international organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE, WTO.

The population almost reaches the number of 11.000.000 comprising of about 92% Greek citizens, while more than 20.000.000 tourists visit the country per year. More than 3 million people live in the capital city Athens with the urban population amounting as much as 78% of the total population. The Greeks enjoy a high level of literacy (98% of the total population) and exhibit high rates of tertiary education. Be noted that Greece is religiously homogenous (98% Greek Orthodox).

According to World Bank’s indicators (2014), Greece has a GDP 235.6 billion dollars, a 0,7% GDP growth , an inflation -1,3% , a declining GNI per capita of $22.680 (2010). GDP is composed by 82.8% services, 13.3% industry and 3.9% agriculture (2015), while tourism provides 18% of GDP lying mostly within the services sector share. Notably, Greece is one of the world’s largest shipping powers, a top tourist destination and the public sector accounts for about 40% of its GDP.

Following global financial crisis in 2009 and under special circumstances Greece lost its credit rating and since 2010 has been engaged in three bailout agreements, which allowed it to cover significant debt payments to its Eurozone governments and International Monetary Fund creditors and ensure the banking sector retained access to emergency liquidity, but having contracted its economy by 26% due to the accompanying restrictive measures imposed to income, spending and cash flow. This serious crisis that Greek economy has gone through the last six years has severely negatively affected growth rate, yet recovery is being expected ahead. According to OECD indicators (2015), the per capita GDP is 26.795 US dollars, the government debt 179.8% and the household debt 115.0% of a disposable income. The tax burden in Greece shows an increase of 1.5 percentage points from 34.4% to 35.9% in 2014.

Despite the recession, Greek skilled workforce in combination with development of ICT initiatives infrastructures (Research & Development centers, clusters, incubators etc.) shape a dynamic sector of economy and an increasingly developing digital environment. Greece, motivated by the fact that had undertaken the Olympic Games in (2004) and taking up opportunities offered by the Information Society within the framework of European Operational Program for IS (3rd Community Structural Fund), achieved to acquire adequate ICT infrastructure and meet the digitalization demand of Greek public and private sector. Modern telecommunication networks reach all areas and a plethora of broadcasting media is offered to the audiences. The internet use is widespread within Greece use and is recorded constantly rising pointing nearly 7 million (6.451.326) users - 63.2% Internet penetration- on Dec 31, 2014 according to Internet World Stats.

According to the Hellenic National Telecommunications and Post Commission (HTPC), the development of the total number of domain names over time, for the period 2001-2014, has grown from 50.000 to 430.000. The number of Internet subscribers has been kept rising and approximated 3,156,071 lines (broadband) at the end of 2014 compared to only 174.000 at the end of 2000 (dial-up and broadband). The increase in broadband penetration (2.4 lines per 100 inhabitants) demonstrates a significant progress made regarding Greece’s convergence to the rest of Europe, taking into account that the European average at the end of 2014 was 1.3 lines per 100 inhabitants.

The WIP 1st wave in Greece

The World Internet Project in Greece is implemented by the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), as part of the World Internet Project ("http://www.worldinternetproject.net"), an international ongoing research program launched in 1999 and directed by the Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. The current report includes a presentation of the results of the first wave of the survey which was conducted from the 30th of November to the 30th of December 2015. The report presents the trends of internet use among the Greek population and explores several aspects of the respondents’ internet-related behavior. This report includes descriptive presentations of the results analyses as well as charts including mostly relative frequencies and in some cases variable means. The relative frequencies and means are included in the charts in order to allow the reader to have a clear overview of the exact percentages. 

The report in Greek is available  here.

The report in English is available here.