# Nikopol Municipality

Nikopol Municipality (Bulgarian: Община Никопол) is a municipality (obshtina) in the northern part of Pleven Province, in northern Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative centre - the town of Nikopol. The municipality embraces a territory of 415.9 km$^2$ (160.6 sq mi) with a population, as of December 2009, of 10,602 inhabitants.
Its northern border is by the Danube River, bordering with Turnu Măgurele municipality of Romania. The municipality also borders with Belene Municipality on the East, Livski and Pordim municipalities on the South, Pleven municipality on the Southwest and Gulyantsi Municipality on the West.
Besides the Danube, which defines the hydrography of the area, the Osam river and some minor rivers flow within the municipality.
There are plans to develop common cultural tourism program that encompass the Nikopol and Turnu Măgurele municipalities. Unlike Turnu Măgurele, Nikopol municipality has poorly developed tourism infrastructure.

## Settlements

(towns are shown in bold):
| Town/Village | Cyrillic | Population (2011) |
| Nikopol | Никопол | 3,186 |
| Asenovo | Асеново | 290 |
| Batsova mahala | Бацова махала | 471 |
| Vabel | Въбел | 740 |
| Debovo | Дебово | 588 |
| Dragash voyvoda | Драгаш войвода | 573 |
| Evlogievo | Евлогиево | 104 |
| Zhernov | Жернов | 100 |
| Lozitsa | Лозица | 264 |
| Lyubenovo | Любеново | 209 |
| Muselievo | Муселиево | 762 |
| Novachene | Новачене | 1,187 |
| Sanadinovo | Санадиново | 356 |
| Cherkovitsa | Черковица | 466 |
| Total | | 9,296 |

## Demography

The following table shows the change of the population during the last four decades.
Nikopol Municipality :
| Year | 1975 | 1985 | 1992 | 2001 | 2005 | 2007 | 2009 | 2011 |
| Population | 20,812 | 17,806 | 15,840 | 13,656 | 11,909 | 11,264 | 10,602 | ... |
| Sources: Census 2001, Census 2011, „pop-stat.mashke.org“, |||||||||

### Vital statistics

The municipality of Nikopol has a low birth rate and a high death rate.
| | Population | Live births | Deaths | Natural growth | Birth rate (‰) | Death rate (‰) | Natural growth rate (‰) |
| 2000 | 14,254 | 103 | 317 | -214 | 7.2 | 22.2 | -15.0 |
| 2001 | 13,400 | 100 | 355 | -255 | 7.5 | 26.5 | -19.0 |
| 2002 | 12,983 | 96 | 337 | -241 | 7.4 | 26.0 | -18.6 |
| 2003 | 12,662 | 86 | 294 | -208 | 6.8 | 23.2 | -16.4 |
| 2004 | 12,296 | 90 | 244 | -154 | 7.3 | 19.8 | -12.5 |
| 2005 | 11,909 | 90 | 290 | -200 | 7.6 | 24.4 | -16.8 |
| 2006 | 11,545 | 73 | 293 | -220 | 6.3 | 25.4 | -19.1 |
| 2007 | 11,264 | 66 | 292 | -226 | 5.9 | 25.9 | -20.1 |
| 2008 | 10,897 | 88 | 270 | -182 | 8.1 | 24.8 | -16.1 |
| 2009 | 10,602 | 92 | 266 | -174 | 8.7 | 25.1 | -16.4 |
| 2010 | 10,366 | 65 | 230 | -165 | 6.3 | 22.2 | -15.9 |
| 2011 | 9,205 | 76 | 245 | -169 | 8.3 | 26.6 | -18.4 |
| 2012 | 9,019 | 71 | 213 | -142 | 7.9 | 23.6 | -15.7 |
| 2013 | 8,835 | 74 | 214 | -140 | 8.4 | 24.2 | -15.8 |
| 2014 | 8,684 | 59 | 224 | -165 | 6.8 | 25.8 | -19.0 |
| 2015 | 8,538 | 54 | 248 | -194 | 6.3 | 29.0 | -22.7 |
| 2016 | 8,332 | 61 | 231 | -170 | 7.3 | 27.7 | -20.4 |
| 2017 | 8,123 | 66 | 214 | -148 | 8.1 | 26.3 | -18.2 |
| 2018 | 7,925 | 56 | 197 | -141 | 7.1 | 24.9 | -17.8 |

### Religion

According to the latest Bulgarian census of 2011, the religious composition, among those who answered the optional question on religious identification, was the following:
Religious composition of Nikopol Municipality
Orthodox Christianity
64.5%
Catholicism
2.8%
Protestantism
0.3%
Islam
15.0%
No religion
8.4%
Prefer not to answer, others and indefinable
9.0% :