Bulgaria’s vanishing act: Population dives by more than 11 percent over the last decade

Bulgaria’s population dropped by 844,000 people, or 11.5 percent to 6.5 million in 2021, according to the preliminary census data from Bulgaria’s National Statistics Institute. The country’s population peaked shortly before the fall of communism at nearly 9 million.

The numbers confirm the “deepening of negative demographic trends” of the past 30 years, the statistics office said. With the exception of the capital Sofia, the population of all districts in the country were in decline. The statistics office put the decline down to both low birthrates and migration.

Bulgaria has the lowest per capita income in the European Union. But since 2014, Bulgarians have been entitled to work and live anywhere in the 27-member border free Eurozone, with many leaving to seek better pay and career options.

While birthrates in Bulgaria are in decline, they are not more so than elsewhere in Europe, with the main demographic crisis being caused by the “constant emigration of educated and qualified people of an active age,” according to a 2018 report on demographics in the country by the German think tank Friedrich Erbert Stiftung.

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