Bulgaria’s population has dropped by 844,781 over the past 10 years to 6,519,789, according to the final results of the country’s latest census released Monday.
The census, conducted in September and October 2021 by the National Statistical Institute (NSI), shows that 59.3 percent of the population reduction was related to negative natural growth while 40.7 percent was caused by emigration.
During the ten-year period between the 2021 census and the previous one, the population decreased in all regions. Vidin region in northwestern Bulgaria registered the highest drop of 25.4 percent, while the smallest loss of 1.3 percent was in the capital city of Sofia.
Sofia is also the most populated city with a population of 1,183,454, followed by Plovdiv and Varna with 319,612 and 310,664 respectively.
The results also show that Bulgaria is a highly urbanized country, with 73.3 percent of citizens living in urban areas.
According to the census, 99.1 percent of the country’s population had Bulgarian citizenship, 0.2 percent had citizenship of other European Union (EU) countries, and 0.7 percent had that of non-EU countries.
