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
Thrace largely covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is East Thrace. The largest cities of Thrace were: Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Sliven, Haskovo, Yambol, Komotini, Alexandroupoli, Xanthi, Edirne, Istanbul, Çorlu, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians, while most of the Turkish