Greek Islands

POP: 1.5 MILLION

ISLANDS: 6,000 (only 227 of them are inhabited)

COASTLINE: 7,500km of the country's total 16,000km

GPS: N 36° 28' 14.7825" E 25° 24' 1.4063"

CUR: EURO

Greece has an extremely large number of islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.

The largest Greek island by area is Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea. The second largest island is Euboea, which is separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, and is administered as part of the Central Greece region. After the third and fourth largest Greek Islands, Lesbos and Rhodes, the rest of the islands are two-thirds of the area of Rhodes, or smaller.

Most of the islands are found in the Aegean Sea and are divided into seven groups (from north to south):

The Northeastern Aegean Islands

Agios Efstratios, Thasos, Ikaria, Lesbos, Limnos, Inouses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara.

The Sporades

Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros

Evia

The prefecture of Evia (which also includes the island of Skiros), is next to the prefecture of Viotia on the east and on the south touches the Aegean Sea, on the north and northwest to the Pagasitiko and Maliako Gulf, while on the west and southwest with the north and south Evian Gulf.

Islands of Argosaronic

Angistri, Aegena, Methana, Poros, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra.

The Cyclades

A group of 56 islands, with the most important being Amorgos, Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Tinos, Folegandros, as well as the “Minor Cyclades” comprising Donousa, Irakleia, Koufonisia and Schinousa.

The Dodecanese