Republic of Cyprus is one of the advanced economies in the region, and has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004. It adopted the euro on 1 January 2008.
After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus de facto partitioned the Republic of Cyprus in two; Greek is predominantly spoken in the south, where the majority are Greek Cypriots, Turkish in the north, where the majority are Turkish Cypriots and Turkish, and English is widely used.
Languages
In the latest census in 2006, the percentage of Greek Cypriots remained steadily at 76% (660,000) while the population of Turkish Cypriots dropped to 10% (89,000) as many emigrated to western countries. Other spoken languages are English, Russian, Filippino, French (Minority & Taught Languages).
