Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace municipalities and regions, in this case the 60 municipalities of Central Macedonia and of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and the two regions themselves. Covering an area of "Macedonia and Thrace" is the largest of the seven decentralized administrations by area, and with an overall population of it is also the second most populated one, following the Decentralized Administration of Attica. In the revised European NUTS nomenclature, the two regions of "Macedonia and Thrace" together with the two regions of the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia form the first level NUTS region EL5 (Voreia Ellada). The Decentralized Administration is
Western Thrace demographics of the region toward increased ethnic homogenization within the territories each respective country ultimately was awarded. This was followed by the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchanges of 1923 (Treaty of Lausanne), which finalized the reversal of Western and Eastern Thrace region's pre-Balkan War demography. The treaty granted the status of a minority to the Muslims in Western Thrace, in exchange for a similar status for the ethnic Greek minority in Istanbul and the Aegean islands of Imbros and Tenedos. After the German invasion (April 1941), the area was occupied by Bulgarian troops, as part of the triple Axis occupation of