When the gyro wrap became "the classic"
The 1977 wrap and the 2026 wrap are not the same good. Fries move inside the pita from 1991 and are standard by 2000, while the meat portion grows until 2015 and then shrinks. This page shows what changed when, and what it means for the index.
1976-1985
Small portion, no fries
The 1977 Chania price order specified a 37-40 g meat portion. Pita, meat, seasoning, tomato and onion. Fries inside the wrap were not the norm.
Meat portion: ~38-52 g · fries inside: 0%
1986-1990
Free prices, bigger portion
After price controls ended the portion grows towards 60 g. The wrap becomes an everyday working lunch rather than an occasional treat.
Meat portion: ~53-60 g · fries inside: 0%
1991-2000
Fries move inside the pita
The 1990s are the transition: fries start as an option and end up as the default. From 2000 on, ordering a gyro wrap means fries included unless you say otherwise.
Meat portion: ~63-85 g · fries inside: 55%
2001-2015
The classic gyro wrap
Pita, gyro, fries, tomato, onion, tzatziki. The meat portion peaks around 110 g. This is the shape most people mean by "classic".
Meat portion: ~87-110 g · fries inside: 100%
2016-2026
Same product, smaller portion
As pork prices rise the portion shrinks again. The menu item looks the same but weighs less, which is why the per-100 g index falls faster than the headline one.
Meat portion: ~108-88 g · fries inside: 100%
Product milestones and what they cost
The extra-product factor shows how much more food that year's wrap contains compared with the 1977 one.
| Year | Portion | Fries inside | Price | EUR / 100 g | Extra product |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 38 g | 0% | 0.03 € | 0.08 € | +0% |
| 1985 | 52 g | 0% | 0.18 € | 0.34 € | +2% |
| 1991 | 63 g | 10% | 0.51 € | 0.81 € | +5% |
| 1995 | 73 g | 50% | 0.85 € | 1.16 € | +11% |
| 2000 | 85 g | 100% | 1.09 € | 1.29 € | +19% |
| 2010 | 105 g | 100% | 1.54 € | 1.47 € | +22% |
| 2015 | 110 g | 100% | 1.71 € | 1.56 € | +22% |
| 2022 | 96 g | 100% | 2.96 € | 3.08 € | +22% |
| 2026 | 88 g | 100% | 4.07 € | 4.63 € | +22% |
That is why the headline index always comes with two extra readings: the constant-product price and the per-100 g index. For decade-deep comparisons the per-100 g index is the fairest one.
What the data says
These are computed automatically from the current dataset, not hand-written.
- From 1976 to 2026 the wage buys 62% fewer gyros: 508 down to 195 per month.
- Best year: 1983 at 556 gyros a month. Worst: 2025 at 193.
- Around the euro changeover the index moves from 348 gyros (2001) to 361 (2003), a 4% rise. The big decline comes later, with the crisis.
- Part of the price rise buys more food: today's wrap carries roughly 22% more product than the 1976 one (fries inside plus a bigger portion).
- Shrinkflation: since 2015 the portion falls from about 110 to 88 g. Menu prices rose 138% over that period, but the price per 100 g of meat rose 197%.
- Holding the meat quantity constant the fall is far smaller: 193 portions of 100 g a month in 1976 versus 171 in 2026. A large share of the wrap's "inflation" is in fact a bigger portion.
- Fries move inside the pita in the early 1990s and are taken for granted from 2000: before that we are not comparing exactly the same product.
Glossary: what each term means
- Pita-Gyro Index
- How many gyro wraps the net minimum wage buys in one month. Wage divided by gyro price.
- CPI (inflation)
- The Consumer Price Index measures how much prices rose. The catering CPI covers restaurants and cafes only, which rise faster than the general index.
- Nominal vs real
- Nominal is the number as printed. Real is the same number translated into today's purchasing power.
- Price control
- A state-set maximum price. It applied to souvlaki in 1976-1985, so prices from that period are not free-market prices.
- Shrinkflation
- Same price or same item, less of it. For the gyro wrap it shows up in the grams of meat inside.
- Quality adjustment
- Restating the price for a constant product, so that today's fries and bigger portion are not counted as pure inflation.
- Uncertainty range
- The ± next to a number shows how much prices vary by shop and region, or how uncertain the source is.
- Confidence grades A-D
- A: documented market price. B: documented but regulated or single-source. C: interpolated between documented years. D: estimate outside documented range.