page_title: Bulgaria
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Bulgaria / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: The main building (Rectorate) of Sofia University "St. Clement of Ohrid"
context_page_description: Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The capital and largest city is Sofia; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europe's sixteenth-largest country.
  One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Neolithic Karanovo culture, which dates back to 6,500 BC. In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts and Macedonians; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45. The Eastern Roman Empire lost some of these territories to the numerous early Slavs. They were invaded by small number of warlike Bulgars in the late 7th century who subdued the Slavs and founded there the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681. It dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script. This state lasted until the early 11th century, when Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it.
context_section_description: The population of Bulgaria is 7,364,570 people according to the 2011 national census. The majority of the population, 72.5%, reside in urban areas. As of 2019, Sofia is the most populated urban centre with 1,241,675 people, followed by Plovdiv (346,893), Varna (336,505), Burgas (202,434) and Ruse (142,902). Bulgarians are the main ethnic group and constitute 84.8% of the population. Turkish and Roma minorities account for 8.8 and 4.9%, respectively; some 40 smaller minorities account for 0.7%, and 0.8% do not self-identify with an ethnic group. Former Statistics head Reneta Indzhova has disputed the 2011 census figures, suggesting the actual population is smaller than reported. The Roma minority is usually underestimated in census data and may represent up to 11% of the population. Population density is 65 per square kilometre, almost half the European Union average.
  In 2018 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across Bulgaria was 1.56 children per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, it remains considerably below the high of 5.83 children per woman in 1905. Bulgaria subsequently has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 43 years.
  Bulgaria is in a state of demographic crisis. It has had negative population growth since the early 1990s, when the economic collapse caused a long-lasting emigration wave. Some 937,000 to 1,200,000 people—mostly young adults—left the country by 2005. The majority of children are born to unmarried women. Furthermore, a third of all households consist of only one person and 75.5% of families do not have children under the age of 16. The resulting birth rates are among the lowest in the world while death rates are among the highest.
  High death rates result from a combination of an ageing population, a high number of people at risk of poverty and a weak healthcare system. More than 80% of all deaths are due to cancer and cardiovascular conditions; nearly a fifth of those are avoidable. Mortality rates can be sharply reduced to levels below the EU average through timely and adequate access to medical services, which the healthcare system does not provide fully. Although healthcare in Bulgaria is nominally universal, out-of-pocket expenses account for nearly half of all healthcare spending, which significantly limits access to medical care. Other problems disrupting care provision are the emigration of doctors due to low wages, understaffed and under-equipped regional hospitals, supply shortages and frequent changes to the basic service package for those insured. The 2018 Bloomberg Health Care Efficiency Index ranked Bulgaria last out of 56 countries. Average life expectancy is 74.8 years compared with an EU average of 80.99 and a world average of 72.38.
  Public expenditures for education are far below the European Union average as well. Educational standards were once high, but have declined significantly since the early 2000s. Bulgarian students were among the highest-scoring in the world in terms of reading in 2001, performing better than their Canadian and German counterparts; by 2006, scores in reading, math and science had dropped. By 2018, Programme for International Student Assessment studies found 47% of pupils in the 9th grade to be functionally illiterate in reading and natural sciences. Average basic literacy stands high at 98.4% with no significant difference between sexes. The Ministry of Education and Science partially funds public schools, colleges and universities, sets criteria for textbooks and oversees the publishing process. Education in primary and secondary public schools is free and compulsory. The process spans through 12 grades, where grades one through eight are primary and nine through twelve are secondary level. Higher education consists of a 4-year bachelor degree and a 1-year master's degree. Bulgaria's highest-ranked higher education institution is Sofia University.
  Bulgarian is the only language with official status and native for 85% of the population. It belongs to the Slavic group of languages, but it has a number of grammatical
caption: The Rectorate of Sofia University
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "digiKam-5.4.0", "Image Make": "DJI", "Image Model": "FC220", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Capture One 10.1.2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2017:10:02 00:00:00", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[42, 20820931/500000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[23, 19985767/1000000, 0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "568839/1000", "Image GPSInfo": "802", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "990", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3407", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/13", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:10:02 16:06:52", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:10:02 16:06:52", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "92511/25000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2275007/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "227/100", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "No flash function", "EXIF FocalLength": "473/100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3712", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3006", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "26", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2016041101", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[263/10, 263/10, 15038872/6835851, 15038872/6835851]", "EXIF LensModel": "26.3 mm f/2.2"}