Language and Religion

Modern Greek, an Indo-European tongue, is the language of the country; Turkish is used by the Turks of western Thrace. There are two forms of modern Greek: demotic, the most widely spoken and popular literary form, which was officially adopted for government use and education in 1977; and katharevousa, more akin to classical Greek, which is now rarely used except by the Greek Orthodox church.

Nearly all the people belong to the Greek Orthodox church, the state church since 1864. Muslims are the largest religious minority; Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews make up smaller groups.