Bulgaria

Full name of country: Republic of Bulgaria

Region: Europe

Official language: Bulgarian

Population: 6,782,659 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Bulgarian(s) (noun), Bulgarian (adjective)

Land area: 108,489 sq km (41,888 sq miles)

Water area: 2,390 sq km (923 sq miles)

Capital: Sofia

National anthem: "Mila Rodino" (Dear Homeland), by Tsvetan Tsvetkov Radoslavov

National holiday: Liberation Day, March 3 (1878)

Population growth: -0.66% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +2

Flag: The Bulgarian flag features a tricolor design with equal, horizontal bands of white (top), green (middle), and red (bottom). The red and white are Pan-Slavic colors, and the green stands for freedom.

Independence: March 3, 1878 (as an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire); September 22, 1908 (complete independence from the Ottoman Empire)

Government type: parliamentary republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law

The Republic of Bulgaria, on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, is slightly larger than Tennessee. It is bordered on the east by the Black Sea, on the south by Turkey and Greece, on the southwest by Macedonia, on the west by Serbia and Montenegro, and on the north by Romania. Its people are known as Bulgarians.

Once one of the most successful countries in the former Soviet bloc, Bulgaria held its first free elections in 1990. The country began adjusting to an open-market system as it transitioned to a parliamentary democracy. Part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 2004, Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: The majority of Bulgaria's population is descended from the Bulgars, a tribe from central Asia who conquered the indigenous Slavic farmers and adopted their language. This majority accounts for 78.5 percent of the population. Turks account for 7.8 percent of the population, 4.1 are Roma (though the population may be as high as 11 percent), and 1.2 percent include Russians, Armenians, and Vlach.

Not surprisingly, Bulgarian is the predominant language, and most older Bulgarians also speak Russian (younger citizens are learning English). Most of the minority population groups live in self-contained communities and speak their own languages. Smaller portions of the population speak Turkish and Romani. Bulgaria, like Russia, uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

About 64.7 percent of Bulgarians are Eastern Orthodox and 9.8 percent are Muslim. The remainder that are specified are Catholic, Protestant, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox, or Jewish, while 20.7 percent are unspecified. Bulgarians who are not religious account for 4.8 percent of the population.

Bulgarian Christianity dates from 865 when Tsar Boris I accepted the teachings of a Byzantine monk. By 870, the Bulgarian church was independent, with its own patriarch.

Most of Bulgaria's Turks are Muslims and live in the southeast of the country, near the Turkish border. For the most part, they participated little in Bulgarian public life. They were represented for the first time in the national government after the 2001 national election.

Indigenous People: Although the Roma are traditionally nomadic, many are now settled permanently in Roma communities within Bulgaria's major cities. Sofia contains several such communities, the largest containing more than twenty thousand people.

Education: An estimated 98.4 percent of Bulgarians over the age of fifteen are literate (2021 estimate). Before 1989, when the country was part of the Soviet bloc, Bulgaria placed high priority on education, which was free. Research was prioritized, and Bulgarian students excelled in international science and mathematics competitions. After the Soviet breakup, however, budgets for education were slashed. Schools went without heat, shifting to half-sessions in winter or closing altogether on the coldest days.

Although Bulgarian education is still beset by difficulties, the school curriculum, divided into primary and secondary, is demanding.

Secondary schools are specialized, with courses lasting from three to five years. Some are technical, and others emphasize languages. Like the secondary schools, universities in Bulgaria set their own admissions policies, placing their own weight of importance on achievement in secondary school and on independent test results.

Health Care: Bulgaria's health system faced a crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The system has since been reorganized. For administration purposes, Bulgaria is divided into regional health centers, each largely responsible for its own health care needs. Crucial to this plan are Bulgaria's general practitioners (GPs); anyone seeking treatment must register as a patient with a GP.

The 1998 Health Finance Act created a National Health Insurance Fund, which is linked to a compulsory payroll tax. While a financial crisis in the 1990s forced Bulgaria to seek free medicines and technical supplies from the West and to rely on help from such groups as Doctors Without Borders, the crisis eventually passed, and Bulgarian health workers, having learned from foreign initiatives, are increasingly taking charge. Bulgaria's HDI value for 2022 is 0.799— which put the country in the High human development category—positioning it at 70 out of 193 countries and territories.

Alongside twenty-first century medical practice, there remains a traditional reliance on the healing properties of salt and mineral springs and of certain muds. Bulgaria has well-established spas near Sofia, Plovdiv, and Melnik.

Food: Bulgarian cuisine includes slow-cooked food, boiled or stewed (often in earthenware pots) or roasted on charcoal embers. Bulgarian salads usually feature small, sweet tomatoes and soft, white, local cheese. The same ingredients appear in hot entrees and grilled sandwiches.

Banitsa (cheese pastries) are often sold in kiosks. Distinctive drinks include boza, made from millet, and the highly potent rakia and mastika. Bulgarian yogurt is prized internationally. The main meal is eaten at midday, and the evening meal is typically served very late.

Arts & Entertainment: Much of Bulgaria's unique art originated in the early Bulgarian church. The art of fresco painting lay dormant through centuries of Ottoman rule, and was later revived. Zahari Zograf painted great frescoes during the nineteenth century, a tradition that continues today. Bulgarian polyphonic choral music moved from church liturgy into a flourishing folk tradition. The international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares brought Bulgarian women's choirs to world attention. Similar folk choirs and dance groups perform throughout Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's writers have used their art to fight for independence and autonomy: first against Byzantine domination of church and state, then against Greek cultural domination, then against the Ottoman Turks. Oral folk tales and songs reiterated the same rebellious themes.

In the nineteenth century, pride in the language and people of Bulgaria flourished, finding voice in the work of historians, poets, journalists, and novelists. Of these (and he wrote in all genres), the undisputed "father of Bulgarian literature" was Ivan Vazov (1850–1921). His most influential works include Under the Yoke, a narrative based on Bulgarians struggling against Turkish rule, and Epics of the Forgotten, a collection of narrative poems celebrating fallen heroes of the uprising.

Bulgarians enjoy the outdoor sports for which their country is especially suited, including skiing, fishing, hiking, and tennis. Football (soccer) is a popular team sport. Sofia has two important professional football teams, Levski and CSKA. Bulgaria's national football team has reached the World Cup finals seven times.

In the Olympic Games and other world competitions, Bulgaria's most successful sports records are in rhythmic gymnastics. Their team consistently ranks high and has won the world championship several times. Bulgarians also perform well in weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, badminton, and the decathlon.

Holidays: Bulgarians allocate two days each year to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Other holidays include Liberation Day (March 3), commemorating the day in 1878 when Bulgaria became self-governing within the Ottoman Empire; and Cyrillic Alphabet Day (May 24), also known as the Day of Bulgarian Culture.

Many Bulgarians celebrate February 3 as Trifon Zarezan, when grape growers prune their vines and, to assure a good harvest, sprinkle them with wine. This ceremony dates from the pre-Christian cult of the god of wine, Dionysus. On March 1, Bulgarians exchange martenitsi, red and white tasseled threads. These are worn to celebrate spring and to assure health and happiness in the coming year.

Environment and Geography

Topography: The Danube River forms the border between Bulgaria and Romania. Its tributaries include the Ogosta, Iskar, Osam, Yantra, and Lom. Two rivers, the Provadiya and Kamchiya, flow to the Black Sea; the Maritsa, Struma, and Metza Rivers flow south to the Aegean.

The Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains), between the Danube and the Maritsa, cross Bulgaria from east to west. In the south are the Rhodope Mountains. South of Sofia, the Rila Mountains include Mount Musala, which is Bulgaria's highest peak at 2,925 meters (9,596 feet).

Natural Resources: Bulgaria has small underground deposits of oil and lignite coal, of iron ore, copper, manganese, lead, zinc, and salt. It has a good supply of timber, and 29.9 percent (2018 estimate) of the country's agricultural land is arable. There are numerous mineral and hot springs throughout Bulgaria.

Plants & Animals: Bulgaria is home to more than three thousand species of plants. Of these, several date from the ice age or earlier. There are more than seven hundred medicinal plant species growing in Bulgaria. The country ranks high in Europe in plant diversity.

Beech, oak, and pine trees are plentiful. In the mountains, coniferous forests open onto high mountain meadows, home to many rare species of plants. Bulgaria's three national parks protect most of these habitats.

The parks also protect more than four thousand invertebrate animal species and over three hundred vertebrate species. These include some large mammals, such as the Balkan chamois, the brown bear, the red deer, and the wolf, along with species of smaller mammals. Bulgaria has the second-largest number of bat species in Europe. All are protected under Bulgarian and international law.

Bulgaria's wetlands furnish habitat for other plant and animal populations. The Danube wetlands harbor several rare species of Nymphea and threatened bird species such as pygmy cormorants, night herons, squaco herons, purple herons, ferruginous ducks, spoonbills, corncrakes, aquatic warblers, and white-tailed eagles. Herons, egrets, cormorants, and ibises breed there, and more species rest there on their migrations.

Black Sea wetlands are diverse, providing freshwater, brackish, salty, and hyper-salty habitats, where more than two hundred rare and endangered or threatened plant and animal species have been recorded, including a rare otter (Lutra lutra) and the Etruscan shrew. Stopovers for migratory birds, the Black Sea wetlands provide breeding ground for ibises, spoonbills, and some species of heron. Tufted ducks, white-headed ducks, great white egrets, and Dalmatian pelicans make these wetlands their winter home.

Climate: Bulgaria has two distinct climate zones, separated by the Balkan Mountains. To the south, the climate is Mediterranean with hot, dry summers. The temperate north has four seasons, with warm summers and cold winters when heavy snowfalls can disrupt transportation and electrical power.

Landslides and earthquakes are natural hazards threatening Bulgaria's mountain landscapes. Still more threatening are industrial hazards: raw sewage, detergents, and heavy metals polluting the rivers; heavy metals and industrial waste polluting the soil; air pollution and acid rain damaging forests; and actual deforestation. Bulgaria is, however, a party to most international agreements to safeguard the environment. By the 2020s, the country, like others worldwide, had been facing the increasing impacts, particularly rising temperatures, of climate change.

Economy

Bulgaria embarked on a program of economic reform following the financial crisis that toppled the country’s socialist government in 1996. Reform initiatives have been aided by hundreds of millions of dollars in loans by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The economy of Bulgaria improved substantially between 2003 and 2008, but the global financial crisis caused a deep recession in 2009. Growth in Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) remained at about 2 percent for several years. In 2015, with increasing demand for Bulgarian exports from European Union (EU) countries, as well as EU development funds, growth rose to about 3 percent. Bulgaria's GDP was US$214.061 billion  in 2023.

Bulgaria had a labor force of approximately 3.103 million in 2023, with an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent. Many sectors of Bulgaria's economy, particularly tourism, suffered from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged in Bulgaria in early 2020.

Industry: Bulgaria's major industries are food processing, tobacco, electricity, gas, and petroleum. Other manufacturing activity includes automotive parts, machinery, metals, and chemicals.

The nation's exports consist largely of wheat, copper, refined petroleum, electricity, and packaged medicines. Bulgaria imports fuel, minerals and raw materials, cars, and metals and ores. Its major trading partners are Germany, Italy, Turkey, Romania, Greece, and Russia; however, Bulgaria's imposition of sanctions on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine cast uncertainty over the future of Bulgaria and Russia's trade relationship.

Organized crime cartels, with the help of corrupt customs officials, have used Bulgaria as an outlet for drug trafficking. The central government has cooperated with agents from Britain and other countries to combat drug trafficking.

Agriculture: Bulgaria's favored status in the Soviet Union won its farmers permission to work small plots of land for themselves. This contributed to the state's prosperity in the past and has eased its transition to an independent economy. The nation's farms produce vegetables and fruits, particularly grapes for wine; sugar beets and cereal grains: wheat, barley, and sunflowers. Livestock include cows, pigs, and poultry, with sheep on the hillsides.

Tourism: The travel and tourism industry has become a significant contributor to Bulgaria's GDP. Despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this sector, Bulgaria retains a well-established tourist infrastructure of skiing and fishing lodges, beach resorts, and health spas. History enthusiasts can explore Roman and Byzantine ruins and medieval Christian architecture and frescoes.

Popular destinations along the Black Sea Coast include Varna, Burgas, Nesebar, and Varvara, as well as Atanasovsko Lake, which is popular among birdwatchers. Popular vacation activities include cycling, mountain biking, hang gliding and paragliding. Bulgarians have also marketed their unique folk festivals, such as the Festival of Roses at Kazaniak and Karlovo, to tourists.

Government

Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a government comprised of three branches. All citizens eighteen years of age and over can vote.

The executive branch includes a president and vice president, elected together by popular vote to five-year terms. The head of government (prime minister) is the chair of the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The chair is elected by members of the National Assembly. The chair nominates the deputy prime ministers, all of whom must be approved by the National Assembly.

The legislative branch consists of a unicameral National Assembly. Elected by popular vote, its 240 members serve four-year terms.

The judicial system, based on Roman law, includes the Supreme Administrative Court, the Supreme Court of Cassation, a Constitutional Court, and a Supreme Judicial Council. The Supreme Judicial Council consists of twenty-five members, and appoints the justices, prosecutors, and investigative magistrates in the judicial system.

For local administration, Bulgaria is divided into twenty-eight provinces, each governed from a provincial seat.

Bulgaria has many political parties. Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) garnered most of the vote in many elections in the twenty-first century.

While the country had maintained a fairly close relationship with Russia for much of the twentieth century, Bulgaria took several steps in the early twenty-first century to develop closer ties with the EU. An important development came in 2022; when Russia invaded Ukraine, Bulgaria aligned with other NATO members to back Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Russia, among other measures. In retaliation, the Russian government cut off Bulgaria from imports of Russian natural gas, which led to a further deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Interesting Facts

• Bulgaria's plain of Thrace, bordering the Black Sea, is the legendary home of Orpheus, the musician whose music won him safe conduct to the Underworld to bring back his wife Eurydice.
• In 1943 Bulgaria's last king, Simeon II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, inherited the crown when he was six years old. He was deposed three years later by the new communist government. After years as a successful businessman in Spain, he returned to the Republic of Bulgaria in 1996 and served as prime minister from 2001 to 2005.
• In 2015, a team from the company Coca-Cola HBC Bulgaria broke the world record for the largest glass bottle mosaic.
• In 2020, the oldest directly dated remains of Homo sapiens in Europe were discovered in a Bulgarian cave.

Bibliography

"Bulgaria." CIA World Factbook, 15 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bulgaria/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Bulgaria." The World Bank, 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/BG. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Bulgaria." World Health Organization, 2023, www.who.int/countries/bgr/en/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2023.

Dzhambazova, Boryana, and Andrew Higgins. "Once Best Friends, Bulgaria Takes a Stand Against Russia." The New York Times, 11 May 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/world/europe/bulgaria-russia-ukraine.html. Accessed 26 May 2022.

Human Development Report. United Nations Development Programme, 13 Mar. 2024, hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2021-22pdf‗1.pdf. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.