Cyprus Country Overview
Where is Cyprus located? Cyprus is an island located in the east of the Mediterranean Sea. Geographically, Cyprus actually belongs to Asia, but is politically attributed to Europe. Also on the time zone map, Cyprus is in the Eastern European time zone. There is a time shift of +2 hours to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). In the summer months even daylight saving time is introduced. Then the time is put forward one hour, which further increases the difference to the world clock.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Cyprus is 1,266,676, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 1,266,676 |
| Population growth rate | 1.15% |
| Birth rate | 11.30 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 78.17 years |
| Men life expectancy | 75.38 years |
| Women life expectancy | 81.09 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 15.64% |
| 15-64 years | 71.98% |
| 65 years and above | 12.38% |
| Median age | 36.10 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 1.04 |
| Population density | 136.92 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 69.20% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 98.8% Greeks, 1.2 others (including Maronites, Armenians, Turks) – proportion of foreigners 2015: 17.1% | |
| Religions | |
| Greek Orthodox 78%, Muslims 18%, Maronites, Armenian Apostolic and members of other religions 4% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.873 |
| HDI ranking | 31st out of 194 |
People in Cyprus
In the Republic of Cyprus there are 850,000 mainly Greek residents. In the north of the island there are another 345,000 people, mostly of Turkish origin. Most of the Greek Cypriots are Orthodox Christians, the Turkish Cypriots are mostly Sunni Muslims. By the way, there are two different names for the residents of Cyprus: “Cypriots” and “Cypriots”. Both are correct.
You can find different information about the population. But there are many more people living in the Greek than in the Turkish part. The Cypriot Greeks make up about 72 percent of the island’s total population. Before the division of the country, the Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks were scattered across the island. Today it looks very different, only a few Greeks live in the north and, conversely, only a few Turks in the south.
Languages in Cyprus
In the Greek part you logically speak Greek and in the Turkish part Turkish, but also Arabic. The Cypriot Greeks speak their own Greek dialect, which is typical for the island.