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Bulgaria is a country in the south east corner of Europe.

Bulgaria has a border on the Black Sea.

The land is mostly mountains with lowlands in the north and south east.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Bulgaria, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 43 00N
Longitude - 25 00E

The capital of Bulgaria is Sofia.

Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of the government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Bulgaria is the lev. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, having joined in 2007.

Bulgarian is the official language.

Check the weather in Sofia now.

This is the time in Sofia now

The Bulgarian flag is 3 equal horizontal stripes of, from the top, white, green and red.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Bulgarian National Anthem called Dear Homeland. It was adopted in 1964. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

Proud Balkan mountains,
next to them the Danube flows,
the sun sheds its light over Thrace,
shining over Pirin. 

Chorus
Dear native land,
you are paradise on earth,
your beauty and your charm,
ah, they never end.

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Bulgaria is 108,489 sq kms which is the 14th largest in Europe.

Bulgaria has lakes, rivers and canals which total 2,390 sq kms.

Bulgaria has boundaries with 5 countries

• Romania 605 kms
• Greece 472 kms
• Serbia 344 kms
• Turkey 223 kms
• North Macedonia 162 kms

Bulgaria has a coastline of 354 kms which is the 21st longest in Europe.

The highest point in Bulgaria is Musala 2,925 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Bulgaria is 7.15 million people, making it the 19th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 3.66 million are females and 3.49 million are males.

A person from Bulgaria is called a Bulgarian.

To be a citizen of Bulgaria, one of your parents must be a citizen of Bulgaria. It is not sufficient to be born in Bulgaria. You have to live in Bulgaria for 5 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Bulgaria, by population are:-

• Sofia 1,152,556 people
• Plovdiv 340,494
• Varna 312,770
• Burgas 195,966
• Rousse 156,238

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



79.3% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Bulgaria is 8.8 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Bulgaria is 14.5 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 7.4 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 9.6 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 44.5 and for males is 40.6. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 26.3.

The elderly dependency ratio is 30.5. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 3.3. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Bulgaria spends 8.4% of its total income on health care.

There are 3.87 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 6.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

25.0% of the population are estimated as obese.

99.6% of the urban population and 99.0% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

86.8% of the urban population and 83.7% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Bulgaria releases 43.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 21st highest in Europe.

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Bulgaria spends 4.1% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Bulgaria. Primary education is for five years until age 11 and secondary education must continue till 17 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the middle of September and finishes at the end of June, except for the first four years of primary school which finish at the end of May. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas and a 1 week break at Easter, and a one week break in the middle of each of the first two terms.

98.1% of females and 98.7% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

17.2% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 16.9% are unemployed while with males 17.4% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Bulgaria is 2.53 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

8.9% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 57 paved airports in Bulgaria, which is the 12th highest number in Europe.


There are 5,114 kilometres of railways in Bulgaria, which is the 16th longest in Europe.


There are 19,235 kilometres of roads in Bulgaria, which means Bulgaria is in 29th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 8 major national newspapers in Bulgaria.

There are 9.20 million mobile phone users.

23% of the people have a fixed landline.



4.07 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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