Greece has joined a growing list of nations where the number of annual tourists exceeds that of local residents. Recent global data reveals that Greece attracts nearly 2.7 international tourists for every inhabitant, placing it within the top 25 countries where visitors outnumber locals, according to reports from The Greek Reporter.
Leading the global ranking is Andorra, a small state in the Pyrenees, which boasts a mere 82,000 residents but welcomes approximately 4.2 million visitors each year. This translates to about 51 tourists for every person living there, significantly more than Monaco, which ranks second with approximately 9 visitors per local.
Malta follows closely with a ratio of 6.3 tourists per resident, while Iceland rounds out the top four with 5.6. Completing the top five is Palau, an island nation in the Pacific, with 5.3 tourists for each resident. These countries heavily rely on foreign visitors to sustain their economies.
Greece is Not Alone in Tourist Influx
Island nations dominate much of these rankings. The Bahamas leads the Caribbean with 4.7 tourists per resident, followed by Antigua and Barbuda at 3.5, and Barbados with a ratio of 2.5. In the Indian Ocean, the Maldives attracts 3.2 tourists for each local, while Seychelles records 2.8.
Not all countries in this ranking are small. Portugal, Austria, and Croatia each have populations in the millions yet still receive more tourists annually than they have residents. Portugal, for instance, attracts 2.7 tourists per resident, drawing large crowds to Lisbon, Porto, and the beaches of the Algarve region. Austria shows a similar figure of 2.9, while Croatia reaches 4.0, placing ninth overall.
Tourism Trends Across 25 Nations
Greece closely follows Portugal, ranking 19th overall. Cyprus is just ahead with a ratio of 3.0 tourists per resident, and Austria also ranks slightly higher at 2.9.
However, Greece comfortably surpasses countries like Denmark, Slovenia, and Ireland, which each report ratios below 2.5 annual tourists per population. This ranking is based on data provided by UN Tourism, collected via the Our World in Data platform, alongside population figures from the World Bank. The statistics reflect the most recent available data for each country, with dependent territories excluded from the analysis.
The findings highlight the extent to which some economies depend on tourism, even when their populations number in the millions rather than just thousands.
