GR · HERAKLIONLocal facts

Living in Heraklion.

Crete's capital and largest city, on the island's north coast — a working port and university town rather than a resort, with a dense Venetian centre, the University of Crete and the EU’s cybersecurity agency ENISA. The climate is the mildest of the three Greek cities here: ten months of the year the average daily high falls between 15 and 28 °C, and June to August are effectively rainless. Rents run below both Athens and Thessaloniki; Greek runs daily life, with English common in tourism and around the university.

VerifiedSep 20, 2026Updated Sep 20, 2026

Population 179,302

ELSTAT — 2021 Population-Housing Census, Municipality of Irakleio

Official source

Data as of: Oct 22, 2021
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Notes: Resident population of the Municipality of Irakleio (Heraklion) at the 2021 census, read from ELSTAT's municipality table (Region of Kriti, Regional Unit of Irakleio): 179,302, against 173,993 in 2011 — one of the few large Greek municipalities that grew over the decade, while the country shrank by 3.1%. The Regional Unit of Irakleio holds 305,017 and the Region of Crete 624,408.

· Europe/Athens· Greece rules apply

GR · HERAKLION

At a glance

The headline numbers for Heraklion — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.

Cost of living

8.7/10

$766/mo

Rent, 1–3 bed

9.4/10

$392–$833

/mo

Freelancer tax

4.8/10

30.9%

Safety

9.4/10

0.78/100k

Air quality

7.3/10

11.7 µg/m³

Internet

3.4/10

37 Mbps

English

7.0/10

High

Private health

7.6/10

$1,368/yr

What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method

What it costs you per month

A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.

Household

Lifestyle

Location

Estimated total

$1,157/mo

≈ $13,884 / year

Where it goes

Rent (1-bed)$392
Food & non-alcoholic beverages$164
Transport$104
Restaurants, cafes & hotels$90
Utilities, energy, water & home upkeep (excl. rent)$84
Miscellaneous goods & services$67
Health (out-of-pocket)$61
Clothing & footwear$37
Household durables & equipment$35
Recreation & culture$35
Communications$34
Education$27
Alcohol & tobacco$27
Living costs$765

Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($765/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.

Cost of living

What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.

Typical monthly spending (national average)

ELSTAT — Household Budget Survey 2023, Table 1 (COICOP shares)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: ELSTAT HBS 2023 Table 1 per-household monthly amounts, with €59.5 rent removed from the Housing line, each divided by household size 2.42 and converted at 1.1399. Items sum to ≈$766. Housing here is utilities/energy/water/maintenance only (rent excluded); Greek energy costs are relatively high, keeping that line large.

total765 USD/mo

01Food & non-alcoholic beverages164 USD

02Transport104 USD

03Restaurants, cafes & hotels90 USD

04Utilities, energy, water & home upkeep (excl. rent)84 USD

05Miscellaneous goods & services67 USD

06Health (out-of-pocket)61 USD

07Clothing & footwear37 USD

08Household durables & equipment35 USD

09Recreation & culture35 USD

10Communications34 USD

11Education27 USD

12Alcohol & tobacco27 USD

Greece's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.

01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level766USD/month, single person, excluding rent8.7

What this measures

Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.

Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

ELSTAT — Household Budget Survey 2023

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: ELSTAT HBS 2023: average annual expenditure per person = €8,358.24 = €696.52/month (monetary purchases, excludes imputed owner rent). Subtracted the actual-rent component (~€24.6/person) → €671.9/person excl. rent × 1.1399 = $766. Same low-reading per-capita HBS basis as peers.
Notes: Greek monetary household consumption is genuinely depressed (ELSTAT reports it ~20.5% below 2008), so the per-capita figure lands near Czechia despite Greece feeling pricier in tourist zones. Rent shown separately.

Housing

What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.

Asking rent by apartment type & location

RE/MAX Ελλάς — nationwide residential rent survey 2026 (rents agreed through the network), Heraklion

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Sep 3, 2026
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: DERIVED (€/m² × standardized size). RE/MAX Ελλάς, "Πανελλαδική αύξηση 3,8% στα ενοίκια των κατοικιών το 2026" (published 2026-09-03), price table "Υπόλοιπη Ελλάδα": Ηράκλειο €8.5/m²/month. Standardized sizes studio 30, 1br 40, 2br 60, 3br 85 m², converted at the ECB rate in data/fx-rates.json (EUR 1 = USD 1.1534). E.g. 1br = 8.5 × 40 = €340 × 1.1534 = $392. The table lists a second "Ηράκλειο" at €9.0 under Δυτικά Προάστια — that is the Attica municipality of the same name, not this city.
Notes: FLAT BY LOCATION and on a different basis from the other two Greek cities. RE/MAX publishes one figure for Heraklion with no central/suburban split, so both columns carry the same number; the real spread within the city is not published anywhere readable. The figures are rents actually agreed through the network (93 offices, 1,200+ agents, 124 areas), not asking prices, while Athens and Thessaloniki here are Spitogatos asking prices — see the same survey for the size of the gap: it puts central Athens at €9.8/m² against Spitogatos’ €11.5, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki at €9.6 against €10.4, so agreed rents run 8–15% under asking. An asking-basis Heraklion would therefore be roughly €9.2–10.0/m², or $425–460 for the 1-bedroom cell. The ordering is not affected: on the one basis that covers all three, Heraklion (8.5) is below Thessaloniki (9.6) and Athens (9.8), exactly as the stored numbers show.

FLAT BY LOCATION and on a different basis from the other two Greek cities. RE/MAX publishes one figure for Heraklion with no central/suburban split, so both columns carry the same number; the real spread within the city is not published anywhere readable. The figures are rents actually agreed through the network (93 offices, 1,200+ agents, 124 areas), not asking prices, while Athens and Thessaloniki here are Spitogatos asking prices — see the same survey for the size of the gap: it puts central Athens at €9.8/m² against Spitogatos’ €11.5, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki at €9.6 against €10.4, so agreed rents run 8–15% under asking. An asking-basis Heraklion would therefore be roughly €9.2–10.0/m², or $425–460 for the 1-bedroom cell. The ordering is not affected: on the one basis that covers all three, Heraklion (8.5) is below Thessaloniki (9.6) and Athens (9.8), exactly as the stored numbers show.

Apartment	Central	Outside centre
Studio	294 USD/mo	294 USD/mo
1-bedroom	392 USD/mo	392 USD/mo
2-bedroom	588 USD/mo	588 USD/mo
3-bedroom	833 USD/mo	833 USD/mo

Climate

Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.

Monthly normals — Heraklion

NOAA NCEI — Global Summary of the Day, Nikos Kazantzakis / Heraklion Airport (USAF 167540, WMO 16754)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: COMPUTED from NOAA GSOD daily observations for station 16754099999 (Nikos Kazantzakis airport, 35.34°N 25.18°E, 35 m, about 4 km east of the centre), 1991–2020, using the WMO-No. 1203 completeness rule: a month counts when no more than 10 days are missing and no more than 4 consecutively, and a precipitation month additionally needs a complete daily record. Every monthly mean minimum and maximum rests on all 30 years; precipitation rests on 26 to 30 years per month (26 for January and December, 27 for May, 28 for February, April and October, 30 for the rest) against WMO’s requirement of 24. Values converted from °F and inches. Annual precipitation 462.8 mm. VALIDATION: the identical pipeline reproduces the published 1991–2020 normals already stored for the other two Greek cities to 0.1 °C in all 24 monthly values for Athens (Ellinikon, USAF 167160) and all 24 for Thessaloniki (Mikra, USAF 166220), which is what puts all three Greek cities on one measured basis.
Notes: Greece is absent from the NOAA/WMO Region-6 1991–2020 normals CSV set and the official HNMS station normals still use an older period, so the two existing Greek cities were filled from the Climates to Travel tables; those tables turn out to BE this station data, which is why the computed row is comparable with them rather than a break. Climates to Travel also publishes a Heraklion table for 1991–2020: it agrees with this computation on the daily maxima to 0.11 °C and on annual precipitation to 2.8 mm (460 against 462.8), but its daily minima run 0.4–0.7 °C warmer in every single month. Since the same pipeline matched that publisher exactly for Athens and Thessaloniki, the discrepancy sits in its Heraklion minima, not in this method. Winter is the wet season (November to March carry 78% of the year’s rain) and June to August are effectively dry at 0.7–2.2 mm.

Daytime high °CNighttime low °CRainfall mm

Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.

Month by month
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Daytime high °C	15.3°	15.6°	17.4°	20.3°	23.9°	27.5°	29.4°	29.4°	27.3°	24.2°	20.4°	16.9°
Nighttime low °C	8.8°	8.6°	9.6°	11.8°	15.3°	19.3°	22.2°	22.5°	19.9°	16.9°	13.5°	10.5°
Rainfall mm	90	69	54	20	13	2	1	2	12	52	64	83

01Climate comfort10pleasant months/year9.0

What this measures

Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.

Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days

Curated by SettleMetric

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (NOAA GSOD 1991–2020, Heraklion Airport)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Months whose mean daily maximum is between 15 and 28 °C AND whose monthly precipitation is under 150 mm: Jan (15.3), Feb (15.6), Mar (17.4), Apr (20.3), May (23.9), Jun (27.5), Sep (27.3), Oct (24.2), Nov (20.4), Dec (16.9) = 10. Only July and August are excluded, both at 29.4 °C. The precipitation test excludes nothing: the wettest month is January at 90.2 mm.
Notes: Ten sits at the top of this dataset’s range: Lisbon and Los Angeles also reach ten, and only Bogotá, Las Palmas, Mexico City and Funchal reach twelve. The count rewards a winter that never gets cold rather than a gentle summer — January and February qualify here purely because their daily maxima sit just above the 15 °C floor.

02Air quality (PM2.5)11.7µg/m³, annual mean PM2.57.3

What this measures

Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.

Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days

Open data

WHO Ambient Air Quality Database 2026 (v8.0), Irakleio/GRC — original data European Environment Agency, Air Quality Statistics

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Row Irakleio/GRC, year 2024, of the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 (2026): pm25_concentration = 11.66 µg/m³ at 99% temporal coverage over 1 station, reference "European Environmental Agency". Cross-checked against the EEA statistic it is built from, queried directly on 2026-09-20: station GR0433A HERAKLION-2, urban traffic, annual mean 11.663023 µg/m³, data coverage 98.95%, verification flag 1 (validated). The row’s station sits at 35.3328°N 25.1382°E, 0.9 km from this city’s recorded coordinates. Reference year 2024 is the latest year with a full-year figure and the year already used by the other European cities here; the database also carries 2025 at 10.97 µg/m³, but on 56% coverage, far below the EU’s 90% data-quality objective, so it is reported here rather than used.
Notes: ONE station, and an urban traffic one, so this reads high relative to where people actually live — Heraklion has no urban background PM2.5 monitor. For scale, the nearest background site, Finokalia on the coast 48 km east, measured 7.08 µg/m³ in the same year, and the whole Greek network reported between 7.08 and 24.51. Preceding year in the same series: 2023, 13.30 µg/m³ at 88% coverage. Even on the traffic station the figure is well under the EU limit value of 25 and the lowest of the three Greek cities here — Athens 14.2 (a five-station average) and Thessaloniki 16.11 (six stations, four of them traffic) for the same year.

Safety

How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.

01Homicide ratecountry-level0.8intentional homicides per 100,000/year9.4

What this measures

Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).

Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days

Open data

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=EL)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.78). Very low by global standards (world average ~5.8) and down over the series (1.29 in 2008 to 0.68–0.88 recently). One of the safer countries in the set.

Crime by offence typecountry-levelpolice-recorded per 100,000 · 2024

Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB, geo=EL)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS: theft 0502, drug 0601, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, sexual violence 0301). Greece's recorded violent-crime levels are among the EU's lowest; theft dominates. Recording practices differ between countries — read as context, not a league table. Homicide (0.78, same series) is the scored safety headline.

01Theft607per 100k

02Drug offences146per 100k

03Burglary121per 100k

04Robbery27.9per 100k

05Serious assault16.7per 100k

06Sexual violence12.1per 100k

Police-recorded offences per 100,000 inhabitants, 2024 (ICCS: theft 0502, drug 0601, burglary 0501, robbery 0401, serious assault 020111, sexual violence 0301). Greece's recorded violent-crime levels are among the EU's lowest; theft dominates. Recording practices differ between countries — read as context, not a league table. Homicide (0.78, same series) is the scored safety headline.

Hate crime (police-recorded)country-levelpolice-recorded · 2024

OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Greece (official police-recorded)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: OSCE ODIHR 2024: 157 hate crimes recorded by police (111 prosecuted, 23 sentenced); the largest bias category is racist/xenophobic at 75. Caveats: the 157 total includes verbal-insult offences that may fall outside the OSCE definition, and a case can carry multiple biases, so categories do not sum to the total. Recorded-crime counts are not comparable across countries.

157

recorded by police

racist / xenophobic

OSCE ODIHR 2024: 157 hate crimes recorded by police (111 prosecuted, 23 sentenced); the largest bias category is racist/xenophobic at 75. Caveats: the 157 total includes verbal-insult offences that may fall outside the OSCE definition, and a case can carry multiple biases, so categories do not sum to the total. Recorded-crime counts are not comparable across countries.

Infrastructure

Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.

01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelGood7.0

What this measures

Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Greek carrier networks (ELTA, ACS, BoxNow) — composite

Data as of: Jul 15, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Dense mainland-city coverage: national couriers (ELTA post, ACS, Geniki Taxydromiki, Speedex) plus one of SE Europe's largest parcel-locker networks (BoxNow) and Skroutz Last Mile; cash-on-delivery ('αντικαταβολή') is mainstream. Athens/Thessaloniki are excellent, but ELTA's financial troubles and ferry-dependent island last-mile keep the national rating at 'good' rather than 'excellent'.

02International delivery easecountry-levelSeamless10.0

What this measures

Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

EU single market / customs union membership (Greece) + integrator coverage

Data as of: Jul 15, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Qualitative rating from EU membership: as an EU/Schengen customs-union member, intra-EU parcels move without customs or border VAT, so the bulk of European e-commerce is frictionless, and all major integrators (DHL, FedEx, UPS, ACS/Aramex) operate → 'seamless'. Minor caveats (not enough to downgrade): Greece is geographically peripheral (a day or two longer than core-EU hubs), non-EU imports clear customs normally, and island delivery adds domestic delay.
Notes: Intra-EU frictionless; the geographic periphery and islands add some transit time but not customs friction.

03Internet speedcountry-level37.3Mbps, median fixed download3.4

What this measures

Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.

Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days

Open data

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Greece

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Median of the 343 daily country-median download values for GR in 2023 = 37.3 Mbps (268,076 download tests; daily medians ranged 21.3–47.3). M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads below Ookla-style tests — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API.
Notes: Greece's fixed broadband is improving as fibre rolls out; the single-stream M-Lab median is used only for cross-country comparability on one consistent method.

Healthcare

What comprehensive private medical cover costs.

01Private healthcare costcountry-level1,368USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old7.6

What this measures

Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.

Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

Curated from Greek private insurers' comprehensive-tier plans (e.g. Ethniki Insurance) — market survey

Data as of: Jul 15, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Midpoint of local comprehensive (inpatient + outpatient) annual premiums for a healthy 35-year-old, €600–1,800 from major Greek insurers (mid-range €100–180/month) → ~€1,200/yr × 1.1399 = $1,368.
Notes: Public cover exists via EOPYY (funded through EFKA contributions), but waiting lists and gaps drive a large private market. Local plans run cheaper than international/expat plans ($2,000–4,000+/yr). Greek insurers raised premiums ~14% in 2025 — a rising curated midpoint, not a firm quote.

Money & crypto

Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.

01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal regulated8.0

What this measures

Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.

Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days

Official source

Law 5193/2025 (MiCA transposition) + AADE crypto tax guidance; supervised by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) and Bank of Greece

Data as of: Apr 10, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: EU MiCA applies and was transposed by Law 5193/2025 (10 April 2025), with CASP licensing and EU passporting, supervised by HCMC and the Bank of Greece. Individual crypto capital gains are taxed at a flat 15% (from 1 Jan 2025), with a €500 annual tax-free threshold and 5-year loss carry-forward. Fully legal and now clearly regulated/taxed rather than a grey area.

02Financial control levelcountry-levelModerate7.0

What this measures

Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

Bank of Greece (capital-controls abolition, 1 Sep 2019) + Greek Income Tax Code €500 cash-payment limit (AADE)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Composite: EUR (eurozone), full EU free movement of capital; the 2015 crisis-era capital controls were fully lifted on 1 September 2019, so funds move abroad without restriction. Offsetting this: Greece has the STRICTEST cash-payment cap in the EU (€500 for consumer transactions; breaches fined at double the amount) plus routine AML/CASP reporting. The open capital account alone reads 'low', but the €500 everyday-cash restriction pulls the composite up to 'moderate'.
Notes: A 2025–26 proposal to cut the cap to €200 was withdrawn; the €500 limit remains.

Language

How far English gets you in daily life and services.

01English proficiencycountry-levelHigh7.0

What this measures

Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Research

EF EPI 2025 — Greece (score 592, rank 20/123, High band)

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Greece scores 592, rank 20/123 — top of the 'High' band, just below the 'Very High' threshold (~600); global average 488. English is widely functional in tourism, services and among younger Greeks, though the score slipped 10 points from the prior edition.

Education

International schooling options for families.

01International schools1accredited international schools, count2.0

What this measures

Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).

Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days

Official source

Office of the Secretary-General of the European Schools — Accredited European Schools, Greece – Heraklion

Data as of: Sep 20, 2026
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Accreditor-verified: the School of European Education – Heraklion (A. Nioti and Savathianon 8, seeh.eu) is listed on the European Schools registry as accredited to teach the European Schools curriculum from nursery to the European Baccalaureate, English and Greek language sections, first Baccalaureate session 2015. It is the only Accredited European School in Greece, one of the 24 locations on that registry, and was set up around the EU agency ENISA, which the registry names as its linked agency.
Notes: VERIFIED FLOOR. The IB World Schools directory (ibo.org) has refused our requests since the Polish work in August 2026 and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of its country listings, so any IB-authorised school in Heraklion could not be counted or ruled out — the same blocked check that leaves thirteen other published cities in this dataset without a count. Heraklion is unusual in that one accredited school could be confirmed at a different registry, so it carries a number rather than a gap; treat it as "at least one", not as a complete count.

Demographics

Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.

Openness to foreignerscountry-levelReservedGallup MAI 3.34/9 · 2016

What this measures

How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.

Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days

Research

Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index, first wave (2016–2017 Gallup World Poll) — full 139-country table (research, attribution)

Data as of: Aug 23, 2017
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Gallup MAI 3.34/9 (2016/2017 wave) — below the global average; Greece was a frontline arrival country during the 2015–16 refugee crisis. No exact 2019 per-country figure was published. Band: reserved.

Who lives therecountry-levelforeign residents 7.1%

Eurostat — population on 1 January by citizenship (migr_pop1ctz, geo=EL)

Open data

Data as of: Jan 1, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Foreign + stateless = 737,061 of a 10,372,335 population (1 Jan 2025) = 7.1% (EU 114,128 + non-EU 622,933). Consistent with the 2021 census (7.27%). The foreign-national total has been declining slowly.

Largest communities of foreign residents761,855 total

ELSTAT — 2021 Population-Housing Census, resident population by citizenship

Open data

Data as of: Oct 22, 2021
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: 2021 census counts by citizenship (total 761,855 foreign nationals). Albania is by far the largest at ~49%. Shares = count / 761,855. Basis is the 2021 census (the only source with a current per-nationality split; Eurostat's per-country citizenship for Greece stops at 2001). The headline foreign-population-share uses the newer Eurostat 2025 figure (7.1%), hence the small date/basis difference. Next ranks include Bangladesh, Russia, India and Cyprus.

01Albania49.2%374,926

02Bulgaria4.7%35,444

03Pakistan4.6%35,309

04Romania3.7%28,250

05Georgia3.4%26,083

06Ukraine2.2%16,408

2021 census counts by citizenship (total 761,855 foreign nationals). Albania is by far the largest at ~49%. Shares = count / 761,855. Basis is the 2021 census (the only source with a current per-nationality split; Eurostat's per-country citizenship for Greece stops at 2001). The headline foreign-population-share uses the newer Eurostat 2025 figure (7.1%), hence the small date/basis difference. Next ranks include Bangladesh, Russia, India and Cyprus.

How you can stay

How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Greece.

All requirements & citizenship filter

What you'd pay in taxes

The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Heraklion as anywhere in Greece.

Full schemes & calculator

See what you would keep

Your income against Greece's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.

Annual gross incomeCurrencyper monthBusiness expenses: 0%

1 New tax resident — 50% income-tax exemption (Article 5C) + EFKA
51,884 EURnet/year
13.5% burden
2 IKE (private company) — 22% corporate tax + 5% dividend
44,460 EURnet/year
25.9% burden
3 Freelancer (ελεύθερος επαγγελματίας) — progressive income tax + EFKA class
41,466 EURnet/year
30.9% burden

Who is Heraklion for?

The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.

Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.

Works in your favour

English proficiencyHigh

EF EPI 2025 — Greece (score 592, rank 20/123, High band)

Research

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Greece scores 592, rank 20/123 — top of the 'High' band, just below the 'Very High' threshold (~600); global average 488. English is widely functional in tourism, services and among younger Greeks, though the score slipped 10 points from the prior edition.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$766/mo

ELSTAT — Household Budget Survey 2023

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: ELSTAT HBS 2023: average annual expenditure per person = €8,358.24 = €696.52/month (monetary purchases, excludes imputed owner rent). Subtracted the actual-rent component (~€24.6/person) → €671.9/person excl. rent × 1.1399 = $766. Same low-reading per-capita HBS basis as peers.
Notes: Greek monetary household consumption is genuinely depressed (ELSTAT reports it ~20.5% below 2008), so the per-capita figure lands near Czechia despite Greece feeling pricier in tourist zones. Rent shown separately.

Domestic delivery qualityGood

Greek carrier networks (ELTA, ACS, BoxNow) — composite

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jul 15, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Dense mainland-city coverage: national couriers (ELTA post, ACS, Geniki Taxydromiki, Speedex) plus one of SE Europe's largest parcel-locker networks (BoxNow) and Skroutz Last Mile; cash-on-delivery ('αντικαταβολή') is mainstream. Athens/Thessaloniki are excellent, but ELTA's financial troubles and ferry-dependent island last-mile keep the national rating at 'good' rather than 'excellent'.

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden30.9%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Law 5246/2025 income-tax scale + e-EFKA Class 1)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Standard freelancer scheme at €60,000, single (scheme gr-freelancer-standard): EFKA Class 1 = 3,006/yr (deductible); income tax on 56,994 via the 2026 scale (9/20/26/34/39%) = 15,528. Levies 18,534 → 30.9%. NOTE: a relocating new tax resident gets the 50% income-tax exemption (Article 5C, scheme gr-freelancer-newresident-50) for 7 years, cutting this to ≈13.5% — but the 30.9% standard figure is the unconditional, steady-state burden shown as the headline.

Internet speed37 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Greece

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Median of the 343 daily country-median download values for GR in 2023 = 37.3 Mbps (268,076 download tests; daily medians ranged 21.3–47.3). M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads below Ookla-style tests — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API.
Notes: Greece's fixed broadband is improving as fibre rolls out; the single-stream M-Lab median is used only for cross-country comparability on one consistent method.

Relocating with a partner and school-age children.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate0.78/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=EL)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.78). Very low by global standards (world average ~5.8) and down over the series (1.29 in 2008 to 0.68–0.88 recently). One of the safer countries in the set.

Private healthcare cost$1,368/yr

Curated from Greek private insurers' comprehensive-tier plans (e.g. Ethniki Insurance) — market survey

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jul 15, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Midpoint of local comprehensive (inpatient + outpatient) annual premiums for a healthy 35-year-old, €600–1,800 from major Greek insurers (mid-range €100–180/month) → ~€1,200/yr × 1.1399 = $1,368.
Notes: Public cover exists via EOPYY (funded through EFKA contributions), but waiting lists and gaps drive a large private market. Local plans run cheaper than international/expat plans ($2,000–4,000+/yr). Greek insurers raised premiums ~14% in 2025 — a rising curated midpoint, not a firm quote.

Air quality (PM2.5)11.7 µg/m³

WHO Ambient Air Quality Database 2026 (v8.0), Irakleio/GRC — original data European Environment Agency, Air Quality Statistics

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Row Irakleio/GRC, year 2024, of the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 (2026): pm25_concentration = 11.66 µg/m³ at 99% temporal coverage over 1 station, reference "European Environmental Agency". Cross-checked against the EEA statistic it is built from, queried directly on 2026-09-20: station GR0433A HERAKLION-2, urban traffic, annual mean 11.663023 µg/m³, data coverage 98.95%, verification flag 1 (validated). The row’s station sits at 35.3328°N 25.1382°E, 0.9 km from this city’s recorded coordinates. Reference year 2024 is the latest year with a full-year figure and the year already used by the other European cities here; the database also carries 2025 at 10.97 µg/m³, but on 56% coverage, far below the EU’s 90% data-quality objective, so it is reported here rather than used.
Notes: ONE station, and an urban traffic one, so this reads high relative to where people actually live — Heraklion has no urban background PM2.5 monitor. For scale, the nearest background site, Finokalia on the coast 48 km east, measured 7.08 µg/m³ in the same year, and the whole Greek network reported between 7.08 and 24.51. Preceding year in the same series: 2023, 13.30 µg/m³ at 88% coverage. Even on the traffic station the figure is well under the EU limit value of 25 and the lowest of the three Greek cities here — Athens 14.2 (a five-station average) and Thessaloniki 16.11 (six stations, four of them traffic) for the same year.

Watch-outs

International schools1

Office of the Secretary-General of the European Schools — Accredited European Schools, Greece – Heraklion

Official source

Data as of: Sep 20, 2026
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Accreditor-verified: the School of European Education – Heraklion (A. Nioti and Savathianon 8, seeh.eu) is listed on the European Schools registry as accredited to teach the European Schools curriculum from nursery to the European Baccalaureate, English and Greek language sections, first Baccalaureate session 2015. It is the only Accredited European School in Greece, one of the 24 locations on that registry, and was set up around the EU agency ENISA, which the registry names as its linked agency.
Notes: VERIFIED FLOOR. The IB World Schools directory (ibo.org) has refused our requests since the Polish work in August 2026 and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of its country listings, so any IB-authorised school in Heraklion could not be counted or ruled out — the same blocked check that leaves thirteen other published cities in this dataset without a count. Heraklion is unusual in that one accredited school could be confirmed at a different registry, so it carries a number rather than a gap; treat it as "at least one", not as a complete count.

Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.

Works in your favour

Crypto regulationLegal regulated

Law 5193/2025 (MiCA transposition) + AADE crypto tax guidance; supervised by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) and Bank of Greece

Official source

Data as of: Apr 10, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: EU MiCA applies and was transposed by Law 5193/2025 (10 April 2025), with CASP licensing and EU passporting, supervised by HCMC and the Bank of Greece. Individual crypto capital gains are taxed at a flat 15% (from 1 Jan 2025), with a €500 annual tax-free threshold and 5-year loss carry-forward. Fully legal and now clearly regulated/taxed rather than a grey area.

Financial control levelModerate

Bank of Greece (capital-controls abolition, 1 Sep 2019) + Greek Income Tax Code €500 cash-payment limit (AADE)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Composite: EUR (eurozone), full EU free movement of capital; the 2015 crisis-era capital controls were fully lifted on 1 September 2019, so funds move abroad without restriction. Offsetting this: Greece has the STRICTEST cash-payment cap in the EU (€500 for consumer transactions; breaches fined at double the amount) plus routine AML/CASP reporting. The open capital account alone reads 'low', but the €500 everyday-cash restriction pulls the composite up to 'moderate'.
Notes: A 2025–26 proposal to cut the cap to €200 was withdrawn; the €500 limit remains.

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden30.9%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (Law 5246/2025 income-tax scale + e-EFKA Class 1)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: Standard freelancer scheme at €60,000, single (scheme gr-freelancer-standard): EFKA Class 1 = 3,006/yr (deductible); income tax on 56,994 via the 2026 scale (9/20/26/34/39%) = 15,528. Levies 18,534 → 30.9%. NOTE: a relocating new tax resident gets the 50% income-tax exemption (Article 5C, scheme gr-freelancer-newresident-50) for 7 years, cutting this to ≈13.5% — but the 30.9% standard figure is the unconditional, steady-state burden shown as the headline.

Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate0.78/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=EL)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Notes: Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (0.78). Very low by global standards (world average ~5.8) and down over the series (1.29 in 2008 to 0.68–0.88 recently). One of the safer countries in the set.

Air quality (PM2.5)11.7 µg/m³

WHO Ambient Air Quality Database 2026 (v8.0), Irakleio/GRC — original data European Environment Agency, Air Quality Statistics

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Row Irakleio/GRC, year 2024, of the WHO Ambient Air Quality Database v8.0 (2026): pm25_concentration = 11.66 µg/m³ at 99% temporal coverage over 1 station, reference "European Environmental Agency". Cross-checked against the EEA statistic it is built from, queried directly on 2026-09-20: station GR0433A HERAKLION-2, urban traffic, annual mean 11.663023 µg/m³, data coverage 98.95%, verification flag 1 (validated). The row’s station sits at 35.3328°N 25.1382°E, 0.9 km from this city’s recorded coordinates. Reference year 2024 is the latest year with a full-year figure and the year already used by the other European cities here; the database also carries 2025 at 10.97 µg/m³, but on 56% coverage, far below the EU’s 90% data-quality objective, so it is reported here rather than used.
Notes: ONE station, and an urban traffic one, so this reads high relative to where people actually live — Heraklion has no urban background PM2.5 monitor. For scale, the nearest background site, Finokalia on the coast 48 km east, measured 7.08 µg/m³ in the same year, and the whole Greek network reported between 7.08 and 24.51. Preceding year in the same series: 2023, 13.30 µg/m³ at 88% coverage. Even on the traffic station the figure is well under the EU limit value of 25 and the lowest of the three Greek cities here — Athens 14.2 (a five-station average) and Thessaloniki 16.11 (six stations, four of them traffic) for the same year.

Climate comfort10/12 mo

SettleMetric computation over climate-normals (NOAA GSOD 1991–2020, Heraklion Airport)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 20, 2026
Method: Months whose mean daily maximum is between 15 and 28 °C AND whose monthly precipitation is under 150 mm: Jan (15.3), Feb (15.6), Mar (17.4), Apr (20.3), May (23.9), Jun (27.5), Sep (27.3), Oct (24.2), Nov (20.4), Dec (16.9) = 10. Only July and August are excluded, both at 29.4 °C. The precipitation test excludes nothing: the wettest month is January at 90.2 mm.
Notes: Ten sits at the top of this dataset’s range: Lisbon and Los Angeles also reach ten, and only Bogotá, Las Palmas, Mexico City and Funchal reach twelve. The count rewards a winter that never gets cold rather than a gentle summer — January and February qualify here purely because their daily maxima sit just above the 15 °C floor.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$766/mo

ELSTAT — Household Budget Survey 2023

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Jul 15, 2026
Method: ELSTAT HBS 2023: average annual expenditure per person = €8,358.24 = €696.52/month (monetary purchases, excludes imputed owner rent). Subtracted the actual-rent component (~€24.6/person) → €671.9/person excl. rent × 1.1399 = $766. Same low-reading per-capita HBS basis as peers.
Notes: Greek monetary household consumption is genuinely depressed (ELSTAT reports it ~20.5% below 2008), so the per-capita figure lands near Czechia despite Greece feeling pricier in tourist zones. Rent shown separately.