Atlas

Area codes
of Greece

Every Greek number is ten digits, and a geographic one starts with 2. What follows reads left to right like an address: the second digit is one of eight regions, the third narrows it to a prefecture, and the fourth picks the exchange. So 2831 is Crete, then Rethymno, then the town itself.

Grouping
21 — Greater Athens222 — Euboea223 — Phthiotis and Evrytania224 — Dodecanese225 — Lesbos and Lemnos226 — Boeotia and Phocis227 — Chios, Icaria and Samos228 — Cyclades229 — Attica outside Athens231/239 — Thessaloniki232 — Serres233 — Imathia234 — Kilkis235 — Pieria237/239 — Chalkidiki238 — Pella and Florina241/249 — Larissa242 — Magnesia and the Sporades243/244 — Karditsa and Trikala246 — Kozani, Grevena and Kastoria251/259 — Kavala and Thasos252 — Drama253 — Rhodope254 — Xanthi255 — Evros261/269 — Achaea262 — Elis263/264 — Aetolia-Acarnania264 — Lefkada265 — Ioannina266 — Corfu and Thesprotia267 — Kefalonia and Ithaca268 — Arta and Preveza269 — Zakynthos271/275/279 — Argolis and Arcadia272/273/276 — Laconia and Messenia273 — Kythera274 — Corinthia281/289 — Heraklion282 — Chania283 — Rethymno284 — Lasithi21222223224225226227228229231/239232233234235237/239238241/249242243/244246251/259252253254255261/269262263/264264265266267268269271/275/279272/273/276273274281/28928228328425562552255325232544252423272323255425422325252225212534254125312321253225352324234323412591253323842512592255523222551259423952381238523822394239123972386259323322312333239324672463233123762353239223722396237723712468239924612465235123732375246423742462235226552657249326532495265626582492243224942651266126632664241243324282431266526592254266624342444266224452426268524412425242124432491242326842253268326812422242722322251242422522682264322372236223822312642222622272235264526472233264122342222264422282646227226352266226522742267263222212261222326342229263122712268226226742612264269126712263229526962693269427432692274222242294229621274426232741274722992695228226222746229122732797229722922796262127952624275122882283262527532275275227126262247229822892281279127552754279227652761272427222757273127632284272122432723224222852735272522872733273222862734224627362241·224422452824282128222825283428312812823289728332843284128442832289128942895289228422893

How to read the map. Each patch is a prefecture — a regional unit, in the name it goes by now — and its colour is the two-digit zone it falls in, which is what the second digit of every number dialled there will be. The figure on the patch is the three-digit group serving it, and the dots are the four-digit codes, each at the town it is dialled from.

Where a patch carries two numbers. The three levels do not nest perfectly, and the map does not pretend they do. Six cities have a short code of their own and leave the rest of their prefecture on a longer one, so Larissa reads 241/249 and Heraklion 281/289. Two more prefectures share a border and a set of codes: Karditsa and Trikala, Argolis and Arcadia. Where the reverse happens and one group spans two prefectures — 223 covers Phthiotis and Evrytania, 227 covers Chios, Icaria and Samos — the patches are drawn as the single area they are.

Athens, and two codes without a dot. The 21 area is Athens, Piraeus and Elefsina, and has no four-digit codes to pin: an Athens number is 21 plus eight digits. Elefsina sits in West Attica, which is otherwise 229, and is the one place the colour is a simplification. Two codes are listed with no dot at all — 2654 Metamorfosi and 2293 Agia Sotira — because each name belongs to several villages and nothing in the sources says which one. A code without a location is honest; a dot in the wrong village is not.

Sources. Code list: Wikipedia, Telephone numbers in Greece, which groups the codes under the prefecture each serves. Code locations: the coordinates on each town's own Wikipedia article, and Wikidata for the dozen it has no article for. Geometry: Eurostat GISCO, NUTS 3 regional units at 1:1m, 2024 edition, dissolved by code group, numbering zone and administrative region.