About Kythera

The island is hilly, broken by deep ravines running down to the sea. Two ranges run along the west and north coastline, sloping from the high cliffs of the west coast down to the bay of Avlemonas. The population has declined steadily from 13,000 full-time residents in 1907 to about 3,500 today, despite which the island includes a disproportionate number of villages, hamlets and small settlements scattered across the variegated landscape; in fact, it is said that Kythera has the highest proportion of road miles per inhabitant than any other part of Greece. The shortage of good quality arable land and the absence of a maritime tradition, due to the lack of a safe year-round harbour, has meant that the island’s inhabitants have always had to look for work elsewhere – originally as seasonal workers on the mainland, and later through emigration. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Kytherians emigrated first to Asia Minor, and then mostly to Egypt, the United States and finally Australia; others headed to South Africa, South America and Canada. Kythera maintains particularly close bonds with the Kytherian community of Australia.

According to the census of 2021, the essentially barren island of Antikythera has a resident population of 39. Many Antikytherians return to the island and its single little town of Potamos in the summer, but in the depths of winter the full-time inhabitants can drop to a dozen or so. The island is a crucial staging point for migratory birds on the way to and from Africa, and the Greek ornithological Society has established a permanent observatory there.

Kythera’s main cash crop is olive oil, thanks to the active promotion of olive tree planting by the British administration during the period of the United States of the Ionian Islands (1815-1864). The annual olive harvest has become very much part of the island’s cultural identity, whilst even today providing some additional economic support to local families. Sadly, despite the generally high quality of the product, it has proved impossible to market as premium olive oil, and most is sold in bulk to dealers and goes to join mixed Euro olive oils in France and Spain. The only other significant local agricultural product is honey, and efforts are currently underway to give it an appellation d’origine certification. Otherwise the local economy depends on tourism, concentrated heavily in the months of July and August, and on the associated but fluctuating building and construction activity.

In the last ten or so years, numbers of retired or close to retirement age foreigners, mostly European, have gradually transitioned from second-home owners during the summer months to full-time or near full-time residents. The end of the previous century was marked by a high influx of Albanians and other East Europeans who were rapidly absorbed by the building, agricultural and care sectors. Many of them have now moved on in search of better opportunities, but a significant number remained on Kythera, started established and successful business and raised children who have been seamlessly incorporated into the local population. Other incomers include an equally welcome handful of young Greek professionals.