The Internet in Greece 2017

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, according to the latest census of 2011, while more than 20.000.000 tourists visit the country per year. More than 3 million people live in the capital city, Athens, while urban population throughout the country consists the 78% of the total. The Greeks enjoy a high level of literacy (98% of the total population) and education and there is religion homogeneity among them (98% Greek Orthodox).

According to World Bank’s indicators (2015), Greece has a GDP 194.9 billion dollars, a -0,2% GDP growth, an inflation -0,8% in 2016, a declining GNI per capita of $20.270 (2015). 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 seven years has severely negatively affected growth rate, yet recovery is being expected ahead. As a consequence of the aforementioned economic crisis Greece has the two highest scores within EU countries, those of government debt (177.4% of the country's GDP) and of unemployment rate ( 23%).

Despite the recession, Greek skilled workforce in combination with development of ICT initiatives structures (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 wider audiences. The internet use is widespread within Greece and is recorded constantly rising pointing more than 7 million (7,072,534) users - 65.6% Internet penetration- on June, 2016 (http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm#gr). Also, according to the same source, the Greek Facebook subscribers on June 2016 amounted to 5,000,000, i.e. 46.4% penetration rate). According to OECD indicators (https://data.oecd.org/greece.htm) the Internet access in Greece in 2015 was 68.1 per cent of all households.

According to the Hellenic National Telecommunications and Post Commission (HTPC)2 , the development of the total number of domain names over time (including the sub-domains, i.e. com.gr), for the period 2001-2015, has grown from 50.000 to 433.000.

The number of broadband Internet subscribers has been kept rising and approximated 3,440,018 lines at the end of 2015 compared to only 174.000 at the end of 2000 (dial-up and broadband) and up 283,947, compared to end December 2014. Nowadays, Greece’s gap from the European average in broadband penetration has been almost bridged and that, in itself, shows that Greece is clearly converging with the rest of Europe: In June 2015, fixed broadband penetration, namely the number of broadband connection per 100 inhabitants, reached in the EU 31.6% while in Greece was 30.8%. That means that Greece ranks in the 11th place among the EU member states up from the 13th position in December 2014.

The WIP 2nd 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.digitalcenter.org/world-internet-project-partners/), 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. Currently the WIP is currently comprised by 39 international partners. The first wave of the survey in Greece was conducted in November and December 2015. The current report includes a presentation of the results of the second wave of the survey which was conducted from the 31st of January to the 21st of February 2017. This report presents the findings of the 2017 wave of the survey and explores the development of internet penetration among the Greek population by providing comparative data on several aspects of the respondents’ internet-related behavior between the two waves. 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.

ΣΥΓΓΡΑΦΕIΣ: Demertzis N., Vadratsikas K., Linardis A., Fredzu C., Kondyli D., Iliou K., Fagadaki P., Fragkiskou A.
YEAR: 2017
TYPE: Research reports
LANGUAGE: Αγγλική

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