The growth of urban centres in Greece developed at a relatively swift pace in the early twentieth century.

In the first two decades the population of large cities increased by more than 50 per cent. The rural masses who moved towards the cities came from all over the country and hoped to find work but also a more secure and a better standard of living. This trend culminated in the arrival of refugees in the 1910s and naturally with the arrival of the Asia Minor Greeks after 1922, part of whom settled in urban centres.

Source: Kostis K., Agrotiki oikonomia kai Georgiki Trapeza. (Opseis tis ellinikis oikonomias sto Mesopolemo, 1919-1928), Athens, National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET), 1987, p. 78.

As the above table shows, the development of urban centres in the period under examination was considerable. Naturally, Greece continued to be a rural country, where the percentage of the rural population fell to less than 70 per cent only in 1920.

It is remarkable that the great population growth of the cities is related to the unsettled conditions that prevailing throughout the period 1910-20, due to the war.

Let it also be noted that the economic activities related to the development of urban centres, and Athens in particular, concern basically the tertiary sector, that is services, trade, banks and stocks and shares and naturally careers in the state administration. The population increase in the cities preceded the development of the secondary sector, that is industry, which is in that period was in its infancy.

The increase in the urban the population exacerbated existing problems such as the housing problem amd unemployment, and taxed the already adverse conditions in which the lower class was living. At the same time, however, it provided industry with a greater workforcce and contributed to strategic planning of protective legislation and the organized development of the urban space.